Book bans as political action: Evidence from US schools

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Book bans as political action: Evidence from US schools

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During the 2022 school year, schools banned books more often than ever before in ******* States history. Katie Spoon, Isabelle Langrock, and colleagues analyzed data from PEN America on 2,532 book bans that occurred during the year, in combination with county-level administrative data, book sales data, and a novel crowd-sourced dataset of author demographic information.

The findings are

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in the journal PNAS Nexus.

The research team found that people of ****** are several times more likely to be the authors of banned books than white authors and that a considerable proportion of banned books, both fictional and historical, feature characters of ******.

About 37% of banned books were children’s books with diverse characters, including both LGBTQ+ characters and characters of ******. A further 22% were non-fiction books about social movements and historical figures.

In contrast, popularly discussed banned books such as young ****** ****** romance novels only made up a small proportion of banned books. In addition, the authors found that on average banned books do not tend to be particularly popular before bans; nor do bans tend to increase sales by drawing attention to specific contested titles.

The authors also found that the counties most likely to ban books are right-leaning counties that have become less ************* over time than neighboring counties, suggesting that book banning is a largely symbolic tactic to galvanize ************* voters in increasingly competitive electoral districts. According to the authors, contemporary book bans are best understood as a form of political action in contested local contexts.

More information:
Marcelo S O Goncalves et al, Book bans in political context: Evidence from US schools, PNAS Nexus (2024).

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Citation:
Book bans as political action: Evidence from US schools (2024, June 12)
retrieved 12 June 2024
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