In this new video, I discuss Banned Books Week, and how it features only books that reflect the Left’s pet causes of the day, not genuinely banned books, which are by conservative authors.
Comments
Caro K.says
Excellent feature, Mr. Spencer! This speaks to my heart. I live in Fairfax County, VA, and the Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) used to be pretty good. However, about 7 years ago, someone in the library hierarchy ok’ed purging 1000s of older books, due to demand for current bestsellers. That is NOT the only reason for libraries. Libraries should a well-rounded history of our past. That’s no longer the case in FCPL.
The great book purge wasn’t formally announced, but some keen-eyed journalist got photos of dumpsters full of old books. (Alas, I fear such a story would not been published today) I can only imagine the treasures from our past that was dispatched to the dump.
Most of the branch libraries have two giant book sales each year, and could have sold some of those old books. Or the reserve list for the fluffy new novels would have longer wait times.
Now even the freedom to recirculate older books is dying a swift death at FCPL, for the Library Board has demanded each library’s charity in charge of managing the book sales–and spending the money on new counters, tables, chairs, etc.–must now supply onerous financial records of their sales that even the federal government does not require for income taxes. Alas, many of the Friends of the Library groups have closed up shop. Some of the BEST books I’ve bought in the past 10 years have been old ones from these sales. Many of them would be on the that invisible list of banned books you so eloquently describe.
These book sales are a vital pipeline for private booksellers who resell them on Amazon, Abe’s Books, etc., and until this dire accounting demand, was the most annoying change in recent years in the twice a year giant book sales, for these booksellers would clog up the aisles with their giant carts as they swooped in ahead of others with their little scanning devices that gave them them book’s monetary value. These booksellers would often purchase $300-900 in used books per sale! so the Friends groups put up with them. My question is: where will they get old books now?
I suspect the library board demands are a further way of controlling our collective history, by limiting our access to older books.
For some time I have been compiling a list of books I try and reserve from FCPL only to find the county does not have them in its collection, all conservative books of course. By the way, it has six books by Robert Spencer, none later than 2009.
If you were to peruse the New Release bookcases you would find a disproportionate number-10+ books easily-in the 306 range of the Dewey system, specifically sexuality, homosexual, trans, etc. and very little on rest of the 300s’ social sciences. Even the cookbook section had a new release on recipes from slaves kitchens. This is a cross section of philosophical slant of the new books in all Dewey categories.
The most creepy aspect of this brave new world of leftists-controlled libraries is the children new picture books section features one lighthearted book, about a bear’s nose, all the rest are about life as a refugee, living in war zones, all kinds of stories about Africa, being different, unhappiness of some kind or another but precious little about the sweet, sometimes zaniness of childhood. This is the age 1 to 4 or 5 group of books.
I welcome books about all kinds of different childhood experiences, but not to the the complete exclusion of the delightful, buoyant aspect of that stage of life. FCPL has been my refuge, my anchor and where I have gone in times of trouble. It was the second place I went after 9-11. The first was Borders, where the only book on Islam was by by an ex-English nun who’s name escapes me, but her book was a hagiography, so little help in understanding Islam, circa 2001.
Sorry to go on so but you have touched upon something really, really important, that’s all but invisible from the average person. Thank you very much for your bravery and scholarship, needed now more than ever.
StellaSaidSosays
Superb post, Caro K, thankyou!
(The nun whose name escaped you is Karen Armstrong. A name best forgotten!)
Caro K.says
Thank you Stella!
Ah–that’s it, and I did forget it, tee hee.
I fear what Robert Spencer has documented, and what I noticed in just one county’s library system is happening across the country, probably Europe too. The Nazis were so gauche about censorship compared to these ‘sophisticates.’
gravenimagesays
Good post, Caro.
Carosays
I failed to make the distinction that there are no books/videos by Dinesh D’Sousa in FCPL AFTER 2015, including “Hillary’s America” and “Death of a Nation,” two documentaries releases in cinemas all over the country.
gravenimagesays
Robert Spencer Video: Banned Books Week Features Only Leftist Books
………………..
Yes, I’d noticed this as well.
fredoniaheadsays
Can someone provide a list of some of the books by conservative authors that have actually been banned?.
I DuckDuckGo-ed (NO, I don’t do a Google search) and did not find anything but one list at a public school in Alabama.
here are a few banned books I have:
48 Liberal lies about American History (that you probably learned in school)
The PIG to the Great Depression and the New Deal
Caro K.says
The point of Robert Spencer’s article on banned books is there is NO FORMAL LIST of conservative banned books. Libraries, book reviewers, talk shows, etc. don’t have to make messy, controversial lists, they just ignore conservative books, so there’s little buzz about the ideas they present.
Look at Fairfax County Public Library, Virginia, near Washington DC. Of course it does not have Spencer’s latest book, “The History of Jihad from Muhammad to ISIS,” or the one before that, “Confessions of an Islamophobe.” Has CNN, ABC, public radio/tv reviewed these books? I think not.
Congressman Keith Ellison has proposed that books not approved by the Southern Poverty Law Center no longer be available on Amazon! For a sitting congressman to make such a suggestion is unconstitutional.
FCPL has or will have 100 copies of Bob Woodward’s “Fear-Trump in the White House
2018. I put my name on the reserve list in September and there are 632 ahead of me. That’s what buzz can generate.
Here’s is part of my list of books tacitly banned from FCPL:
-The Rational Bible 2018 by Dennis Prager
-No books or videos by Dinesh D’Souza
-Shadow World: Resurgent Russia, The Global New Left, and Radical Islam 2008 by
Robert Chandler
-Credentials to Destroy—How and Why Education Became Weapon to Destroy 2013
by Robin S. Eubanks
-Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine by Ann Applebaum 2017-just two copies of
a book written by a Pultzer prize winning local Washington Post columnist. FCPL
has 100 copies of Woodward’s latest
-All Out War-The Plot to Destroy Trump 2018 by Edward Klein
-Guilty as Sin—Uncovering New Evidence of Corruption and How Hillary Clinton and the
Democrats Derailed the FBI Investigation (publication date not noted) Kindle Edition by
Edward Klein
-The Amateur 2012 by Edward Klein
-The Punjab Trap—Pham Xuan An: The Spy Who Didn’t Love Us by Luke Hunt -Also
not available on Amazon!
-American Pravda—My Fight For the Truth in an Era of Fake News 2018
by James O’Keefe
-Killing the Deep State-The Fight to Save President Trump 2018 by Jerome Corsi
-The University We Need: Reforming American Higher Education 2018 by Warren
Treadgold
I encourage everyone to compile a list of books their local libraries do not have.
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Caro K. says
Excellent feature, Mr. Spencer! This speaks to my heart. I live in Fairfax County, VA, and the Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) used to be pretty good. However, about 7 years ago, someone in the library hierarchy ok’ed purging 1000s of older books, due to demand for current bestsellers. That is NOT the only reason for libraries. Libraries should a well-rounded history of our past. That’s no longer the case in FCPL.
The great book purge wasn’t formally announced, but some keen-eyed journalist got photos of dumpsters full of old books. (Alas, I fear such a story would not been published today) I can only imagine the treasures from our past that was dispatched to the dump.
Most of the branch libraries have two giant book sales each year, and could have sold some of those old books. Or the reserve list for the fluffy new novels would have longer wait times.
Now even the freedom to recirculate older books is dying a swift death at FCPL, for the Library Board has demanded each library’s charity in charge of managing the book sales–and spending the money on new counters, tables, chairs, etc.–must now supply onerous financial records of their sales that even the federal government does not require for income taxes. Alas, many of the Friends of the Library groups have closed up shop. Some of the BEST books I’ve bought in the past 10 years have been old ones from these sales. Many of them would be on the that invisible list of banned books you so eloquently describe.
These book sales are a vital pipeline for private booksellers who resell them on Amazon, Abe’s Books, etc., and until this dire accounting demand, was the most annoying change in recent years in the twice a year giant book sales, for these booksellers would clog up the aisles with their giant carts as they swooped in ahead of others with their little scanning devices that gave them them book’s monetary value. These booksellers would often purchase $300-900 in used books per sale! so the Friends groups put up with them. My question is: where will they get old books now?
I suspect the library board demands are a further way of controlling our collective history, by limiting our access to older books.
For some time I have been compiling a list of books I try and reserve from FCPL only to find the county does not have them in its collection, all conservative books of course. By the way, it has six books by Robert Spencer, none later than 2009.
If you were to peruse the New Release bookcases you would find a disproportionate number-10+ books easily-in the 306 range of the Dewey system, specifically sexuality, homosexual, trans, etc. and very little on rest of the 300s’ social sciences. Even the cookbook section had a new release on recipes from slaves kitchens. This is a cross section of philosophical slant of the new books in all Dewey categories.
The most creepy aspect of this brave new world of leftists-controlled libraries is the children new picture books section features one lighthearted book, about a bear’s nose, all the rest are about life as a refugee, living in war zones, all kinds of stories about Africa, being different, unhappiness of some kind or another but precious little about the sweet, sometimes zaniness of childhood. This is the age 1 to 4 or 5 group of books.
I welcome books about all kinds of different childhood experiences, but not to the the complete exclusion of the delightful, buoyant aspect of that stage of life. FCPL has been my refuge, my anchor and where I have gone in times of trouble. It was the second place I went after 9-11. The first was Borders, where the only book on Islam was by by an ex-English nun who’s name escapes me, but her book was a hagiography, so little help in understanding Islam, circa 2001.
Sorry to go on so but you have touched upon something really, really important, that’s all but invisible from the average person. Thank you very much for your bravery and scholarship, needed now more than ever.
StellaSaidSo says
Superb post, Caro K, thankyou!
(The nun whose name escaped you is Karen Armstrong. A name best forgotten!)
Caro K. says
Thank you Stella!
Ah–that’s it, and I did forget it, tee hee.
I fear what Robert Spencer has documented, and what I noticed in just one county’s library system is happening across the country, probably Europe too. The Nazis were so gauche about censorship compared to these ‘sophisticates.’
gravenimage says
Good post, Caro.
Caro says
I failed to make the distinction that there are no books/videos by Dinesh D’Sousa in FCPL AFTER 2015, including “Hillary’s America” and “Death of a Nation,” two documentaries releases in cinemas all over the country.
gravenimage says
Robert Spencer Video: Banned Books Week Features Only Leftist Books
………………..
Yes, I’d noticed this as well.
fredoniahead says
Can someone provide a list of some of the books by conservative authors that have actually been banned?.
I DuckDuckGo-ed (NO, I don’t do a Google search) and did not find anything but one list at a public school in Alabama.
here are a few banned books I have:
48 Liberal lies about American History (that you probably learned in school)
The PIG to the Great Depression and the New Deal
Caro K. says
The point of Robert Spencer’s article on banned books is there is NO FORMAL LIST of conservative banned books. Libraries, book reviewers, talk shows, etc. don’t have to make messy, controversial lists, they just ignore conservative books, so there’s little buzz about the ideas they present.
Look at Fairfax County Public Library, Virginia, near Washington DC. Of course it does not have Spencer’s latest book, “The History of Jihad from Muhammad to ISIS,” or the one before that, “Confessions of an Islamophobe.” Has CNN, ABC, public radio/tv reviewed these books? I think not.
Congressman Keith Ellison has proposed that books not approved by the Southern Poverty Law Center no longer be available on Amazon! For a sitting congressman to make such a suggestion is unconstitutional.
https://garydemar.com/muslim-congressman-keith-ellison-demands-amazon-stop-selling-books-the-splc-dislikes/
FCPL has or will have 100 copies of Bob Woodward’s “Fear-Trump in the White House
2018. I put my name on the reserve list in September and there are 632 ahead of me. That’s what buzz can generate.
Here’s is part of my list of books tacitly banned from FCPL:
-The Rational Bible 2018 by Dennis Prager
-No books or videos by Dinesh D’Souza
-Shadow World: Resurgent Russia, The Global New Left, and Radical Islam 2008 by
Robert Chandler
-Credentials to Destroy—How and Why Education Became Weapon to Destroy 2013
by Robin S. Eubanks
-Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine by Ann Applebaum 2017-just two copies of
a book written by a Pultzer prize winning local Washington Post columnist. FCPL
has 100 copies of Woodward’s latest
-All Out War-The Plot to Destroy Trump 2018 by Edward Klein
-Guilty as Sin—Uncovering New Evidence of Corruption and How Hillary Clinton and the
Democrats Derailed the FBI Investigation (publication date not noted) Kindle Edition by
Edward Klein
-The Amateur 2012 by Edward Klein
-The Punjab Trap—Pham Xuan An: The Spy Who Didn’t Love Us by Luke Hunt -Also
not available on Amazon!
-American Pravda—My Fight For the Truth in an Era of Fake News 2018
by James O’Keefe
-Killing the Deep State-The Fight to Save President Trump 2018 by Jerome Corsi
-The University We Need: Reforming American Higher Education 2018 by Warren
Treadgold
I encourage everyone to compile a list of books their local libraries do not have.