This week marks Banned Books Week, an annual effort promoted by the American Library Association to bring awareness to literary censorship. In recognition of the event, The Onion takes a look at the history of book bans in the United States.
1788: The forward-thinking founding fathers preemptively crack down on socialist subversion by banning The Communist Manifesto 60 years before its publication.
1891: The state of Missouri bans all books that could clue children in to the fact that Missouri pretty much sucks.
1920: James Joyce’s Ulysses banned for graphic depictions of Irish people.
1942: L’Étranger is unabashedly published in French.
1989: Iowa Gov. Ruhollah Khomeini bans Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses.
1996: Librarians are pressured to take Harry Potter books off the shelves due to the nation having a bad gut feeling about J.K. Rowling.
2005: Kama Sutra banned from the house following dad’s back injury.
2011: Americans from all across the political spectrum agree that banning Fifty Shades Of Grey is fine.
2024: The New York Times releases “The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century” to help streamline book-banning efforts.
2189: The AI Senate threatens to wipe the skull drive of anyone allegedly distributing ancient human knowledge archives.
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