Zum Hauptinhalt springen
Nicht aus der Schweiz? Besuchen Sie lehmanns.de
Just Plain Filthy - Anthony Aycock

Just Plain Filthy

The Story Behind Book Banning's Trial of the Century

(Autor)

Buch | Hardcover
224 Seiten
2026
Libraries Unlimited Inc (Verlag)
979-8-216-19647-1 (ISBN)
CHF 43,60 inkl. MwSt
  • Titel nicht im Sortiment
  • Artikel merken
With the threat to intellectual freedom increasing around the country, this book takes a look at the first ever school book ban case to be decided by the high courts, and offers insights into how we can use history to help the future.

In 1975, the school board members of a small Long Island town did what they thought was a no-brainer: they ordered the removal of nine books from a high school library. The books included some classics – Richard Wright's Black Boy; Desmond Morris's The Naked Ape; Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five – but that didn't matter to board chair Richard Ahrens, who called the collection "anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, and just plain filthy." Maybe he thought the town was with him. Maybe he thought nobody would care. He certainly didn't think he would be sued by seventeen-year-old Steven Pico or that the case would end up before the United States Supreme Court, the first and only book ban dispute ever to do so.

The only one so far. Recent years have seen a surge in book challenges, and it is only a matter of time before another reaches the high court. Island Trees v. Pico ended in a loss for the school board, but not a resounding one. It left enough daylight for the current justices to reach a different conclusion. What was the court's ruling? How did it come about? What was the book ban climate in the 1970s and 80s, and how did it differ from today's? Just Plain Filthy is the first book to tell the complete story of Island Trees v. Pico, the flawed yet fascinating case that is the cornerstone of intellectual freedom in America. For now.

Anthony Aycock is the legislative library director at the North Carolina General Assembly. He is a writer, teacher, and librarian and has spent 25 years working in government, academic, and private law libraries, as well as teaching academic and creative writing. A frequent contributor to Medium and Information Today, he has also written for Slate, the Washington Post, Literary Hub, Reactor (formerly Tor.com), the Missouri Review, the Gettysburg Review, Ploughshares, and more.

Introduction: Bible Drill Meets Penthouse Forum

1. Faithful Watchdogs
2. Killing Reason Itself
3. Too Bloody Stupid
4. Diagnosis: Censor
5. Desperately Seeking Sources
6. To Cull a Mockingbird
7. Battle of the Books
8. Hello, Newman
9. Supreme Court, B1t¢hes!
10. Keep Suing. Keep Fighting

Appendix: Supreme Court opinion

Erscheint lt. Verlag 11.6.2026
Sprache englisch
Maße 156 x 235 mm
Themenwelt Sozialwissenschaften Kommunikation / Medien Buchhandel / Bibliothekswesen
Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie
ISBN-13 979-8-216-19647-1 / 9798216196471
Zustand Neuware
Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR)
Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt?
Mehr entdecken
aus dem Bereich