Book Banning. They Banned His Books In The 1950s
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You all know that book banning is nothing new. And those of you who were around in the 1950s remember books being banned in schools across the country. The thing that Rick Hertzberg (Hendrik Hertzberg) says in this video clip is that book banning didn't stop students in high school or college from reading them. Quite the contrary, everyone wanted to read them and many did. At least that's what happened in my school in East Meadow Long Island. We talked about the books after they were banned even in our classes .
The clip is taken from an interview my team conducted in 1989 when we were interviewing ordinary citizens about their memories of growing up in the 1950s and what they experienced in the 1960s. The television series I made was called Making Sense Of The Sixties and Rick Hertzberg is one of the participants who appeared
Hertzberg is an American journalist, best known as the principal political commentator for The New Yorker Magazine. He was also a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter and editor of The New Republic, and is the author of Obámanos: The Rise of a New Political Era and Politics: Observations & Arguments.
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They banned Brave New World? Oh the irony
👍 This thumbs up is for David Hoffman 👍
Now I want to read catcher in the rye
@williamcutting5224
6 жыл бұрын
Jon L depending on your age, it will mean something different. I read it at 13, 18, and 33. It meant something different every time. 13, it was boring to me. 18, I thought it was about a regular kid, 33...Caulfeild was a shithead. So, when I read it at 18, I must have been a real shit head
@inkajoo
6 жыл бұрын
I thought he was a shithead when I read it in gradeschool. He seemed to be a parody of teenager.
Makes me curious if anyone on that school board ever read a book? 😁😂
@aeromodeller1
2 жыл бұрын
No. They can read only one word at a time. Whole sentences are a stretch. Forget about paragraphs. Understanding the point of a whole book is out of the question. When I was in school there was a mommie group with a name something like Mothers League for Decency. They published a list of banned books. This was a great stimulus for literature, because the kids would read every book on the list. One of the banned books was Catcher in the Rye. I found a copy under the desk in study hall. Inside the front cover was a list of numbers, pages on which certain banned words were underlined. Huckleberry Finn was also banned, consistently one of the most banned books. In my time it was because Huck and Jim talk n****r talk. This was considered improper, kids should not be exposed to anything but proper upper class British English. When my kids were in school it was banned for racism because it uses the word n****r. The book is banned in the south because it criticizes southern racism. The ACLU has got many books unbanned, but that doesn't stop the book burners.
@JWF99
2 жыл бұрын
@@aeromodeller1Normally that would be unbelievable, but sadly I know it's so true aeromodeller1! I can't understand that kind of almost total "Puritan" way of thinking, guess they would have all been happy if we all became the Amish? 😅😂✌
@dontaylor7315
2 жыл бұрын
They probably "read" the Bible, or think they're reading it, but if you got them in a conversation about it I bet it would become obvious they didn't even remotely understand what they were reading. I say this because I grew up surrounded by these types in rural South Texas in the 1950s.
@JWF99
2 жыл бұрын
@@dontaylor7315 so true!!
@dontaylor7315
2 жыл бұрын
@@JWF99 I knew you'd understand. That said, let me say a word for the Amish. I don't think they're really puritanical; from what I hear they're actually pretty earthy. After all they're an agricultural society and live in close proximity with livestock. Farm animals aren't puritanical in their behavior and they don't care who's looking. I hear the Amish have a pretty frank sense of humor about that. I don't mean they'd read Salinger or Huxley but that's their business - I'd trust them to leave me alone with the reading of my choice.
Me : Remembering the PMRC and the senate hearings over rock and roll album covers and lyrics.🤪 That turned out really well for them, didn't it?
@JWF99
2 жыл бұрын
It turned out, (at least imo) probably cost ole "Al" alot of votes later on in the "recounted" 2000 election✌
Wow. Someone really telling the truth about schools.
I don't hear nearly enough people today, being referred to as "yahoos" as i think would be appropriate.
1978- fourth grade. Found Huckleberry Fin in our school library 📚. Had it out two weeks- returned it. Later tried to check it out and they snagged it from me. I had it checked out during the purge over a holiday weekend and they had missed it. Of course by returning it we lost it. At 11 years old I only got about half way through it but my mind was set on running away after that !🙂. I love books 📖. Buy them used for Dollar 💵 or do. You have to keep your eyes open for a treasure but they’re out there. Thanks Nice video 👍🏻
If you bought that book or checked it out at the library, you were put on a watch list, also Helter Skelter was a no no, another is The Art of War! Different days!
This is the importance of having an honest debate. Strawman arguments will be the downfall of western culture.
@idiottv6499
6 жыл бұрын
I'm pretty sure western culture has been through worse.
Now if you read any of those books you are branded.
They banned catcher in the rye in my local district a few years back...
Great video, David!
Every high school library needs a couple copies of 'Siege'. There's nothing obscene there. No naked ladies, no sweaty descriptive scenes.
David Hoffman Who is this man?
Sometimes it feels like the world is on a loop.over and over and over.
Great to see you stand up for the free word/press and remind us all about why state censor is a very bad idea. We live in strange times.
What year did they ban this book?
@aeromodeller1
2 жыл бұрын
It is almost always being banned somewhere. It is on the banned books list almost every year.
thank you.
Christian values are among the best in the world.
@Luke.hello.
6 жыл бұрын
sure
@LlamaforLlama
6 жыл бұрын
L
@Re-AttachedRetina
6 жыл бұрын
The PinCushionMan Which "brand" of Xian values are you talking about? Professed Christians alive in the centuries closest to Jesus's supposed death often varied widely in their beliefs. The first seven evangelical councils, which took place over four centuries starting in 325, brought together the major branches of Xianity to figure out exactly the baseline of Christian belief. Some of these branches still don't recognize even these seven. Many more "heresies" have cropped up for more than a millennium after. It used to be against Christian values to translate and publish the Bible in any language other than Latin. Also remember that any Xian who believes the Bible must be taken literally must therefore have an excellent reading knowledge of Aramaic, Biblical Greek, etc. Otherwise a Christian has no idea what the original, literal words were-never mind that it took centuries to decide what went into that book. Protestants and Catholics still don't agree on what goes in it. But more than you know was left out. For many centuries, slavery was a Christian value and the Bible used to justify it whenever it was threatened. The United States' particular religiosity-which is as far away from "living according to Christian values" as can be conceived, immaculately or not-made it possible for slavery to become sacrosanct here much longer than it should have. (Not that it ever should have....) So please tell us what you mean by Xian values, which strangely I tend to see the least religious striving for much more than the pious churchgoers.
@kennethbrady
6 жыл бұрын
That Nazi-Vatican agreement a stellar achievement.
@auntbeatrice6911
4 жыл бұрын
I'd put them in 4th place myself.