Banned Books Week Presentation by Dr. Samuel Cohen

Dr. Cohen will discuss his forthcoming book anthology, Banning Books in America: Not a How-to. Since 2020, the U.S. has seen unprecedented efforts at the state and local level to exert control over what is taught and read by banning, challenging, or censoring books in K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and public libraries. Beginning with criticisms of the 1619 Project and gathering steam with attacks on Critical Race Theory and DEI, these efforts have led to state legislatures, school boards, and city councils becoming culture war battlegrounds. In this talk, Sam Cohen will look at these contemporary battles in the contexts of the long history of book bans, of specific books challenged by them, and of the larger questions raised about the competing interests and values at play.

Samuel Cohen teaches English at the University of Missouri. His books include After the End of History: American Fiction in the 1990s, The Legacy of David Foster Wallace, The Clash Takes on the World: Transnational Perspectives on the Only Band That Matters, and 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology; he also edits the book series The New American Canon: The Iowa Series in Contemporary Literature and Culture. He is writing a book on the history of university presses in the U.S. and has a forthcoming edited collection on book bans entitled Banning Books in America: Not a How-To.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/banning-books-in-america-9798765138090/

Register here to attend via Zoom.