On Book Banning

The freedom to read is under attack.

From the destruction of libraries in ancient Rome to today’s state-sponsored efforts to suppress LGBTQ+ literature, book bans arise from the impulse toward social control. In a survey of legal cases, literary controversies, and philosophical arguments, Ira Wells illustrates the historical opposition to the freedom to read and argues that today’s conservatives and progressives alike are warping our children’s relationship with literature and teaching them that the solution to opposing viewpoints is outright expurgation. At a moment in which our democratic institutions are buckling under the stress of polarization, On Book Banning is both rallying cry and guide to resistance for those who will always insist upon reading for themselves.

Reviews

Praise forOn Book Banning

Beneath the elegant prose of this small volume lies a vast urgency and passion about language books and human consciousness The hotbutton political debatesabout freedom of thought and the value of open access and the depredations of governments and activists to control bothare set against a background of deep yearning for connection between minds Wells has given us a wise and powerful example of that very thing

Mark Kingwell author of Question Authority A Polemic about Trust in Five Meditations

In this impressive book Ira Wells provides an insightful and engaging discussion of the renewed embrace of censorship by both progressives and traditionalists and what it can mean for the possibility of building a more socially just and democratic society today On Book Banning is a gem that I cannot recommend highly enough

James L Turk Director Centre for Free Expression Toronto Metropolitan University

Praise for Norman Jewison A Directors Life

Norman Jewison A Directors Life is a fascinating story told with verve and authority

Toronto Star

To read Norman Jewison A Directors Life is to wonder why this most consequential of directors wasnt better known A big thanks to Ira Wells for giving biography treatment to a major Hollywood creator who strangely never became a legend

Forbes

Ira Wells makes the persuasive case that Jewison deserves more fame than he has received and along the way delivers a rollicking tale of Hollywood during Jewisons most active years and plenty of backstage trivia

Air Mail

An exhaustively researched look at the career of the countrys most prolific but least understood filmmaker The book is an ambitious and frequently essential endeavour

Globe and Mail

A thoroughly enjoyable and detailed look at a memorable life in film

Library Journal



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Details

Dimensions:

184 Pages
7.75in * 4.5in * .3in
180.00gr

Published:

February 25, 2025

Publisher:

Biblioasis

ISBN:

9781771966634

Book Subjects:

LITERARY CRITICISM / Books & Reading

Language:

eng

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