Barbara Stone, professor of the Humanities at Shimer College Chicago, gives lecture reflecting on Banned Books Week, Education, and Intellectual Freedom. This talk is brought to you by Shimer College's new youtube program "Bright Ideas: a Thought Series from Chicago." Check out and subscribe to our channel for free lectures, talks, symposia, artistic performances, and more.

ABOUT SHIMER COLLEGE
For those of you who are just discovering Shimer for the first time, Shimer is an alternative liberal arts College where students study a comprehensive “Great Books” program. This is just to say that our students take all seminar style classes instead of lectures, reading and discussing transformative books of the various fields of the liberal arts--math, science, philosophy, art, literature, psychology, sociology, anthropology and political science. We offer traditional four-year degrees, early entrance, and transfer paths. Oh, and of course, the financial aid and scholarships you need to make such a real education possible. Our biggest scholarship opportunities are the Dangerous Optimist Scholarship for transfer students transferring in the spring, and the Montaigne Scholarship for new students beginning in the fall. These scholarships, like our education, are designed to take you seriously—to meet you halfway and acknowledge the real seriousness of purpose and (in all honesty) the risk you take in applying. Shimer is a school that doesn’t cares less whether you’re an over-achiever or terminal procrastinator, and more whether you have a thirst for learning about and discussing things that matter, for preparing for a meaningful occupation in a world that needs creative, critical thinkers—not multiple-choice solutions.

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MORE ON BANNED BOOKS
"Banned books are books to which free access is not permitted. The practice of banning books is a form of censorship, from political, religious, moral, or (less often) commercial motives....

Such a large number of banned books has led publishers becoming specialized in them. The best-known examples are the Parisian Obelisk Press, which published Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, and Olympia Press, which published William Burroughs's Naked Lunch. Both of these, the work of father Jack Kahane and son Maurice Girodias, specialized in English-language books which were prohibited, at the time, in Great Britain and the United States. Ruedo Ibérico, also located in Paris, specialized in books prohibited in Spain during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Russian literature prohibited during the Soviet period was published outside of Russia.

Books are still banned today. Nowhere can everything be published, although the prohibitions vary strikingly from one country to another: hate speech, for example, is prohibited in several countries, such as Sweden, though legal in the United States, where the only prohibition is on child pornography. Some believe that the banning of specific books is appropriate, such as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, in Russia, or Hitler's Mein Kampf, in Austria.

At the local level, books have been and still are banned by schools and public libraries. This is usually the result of complaints from parents, who find particular books not appropriate for their children. In many libraries, including the British Library and the Library of Congress, erotic books are housed in separate collections which require special application.[1] Libraries sometimes avoid purchasing controversial books, and the personal opinions of librarians have at times impacted book selection."

Wikipedia contributors. "List of books banned by governments." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 20 Sep. 2015. Web. 25 Sep. 2015.

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