Reading Wars

Authors

• Don Herzog, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Files

Description

Once again, we’re fighting wars over reading. Who gets to read? What do they get to read? These days, the right is obsessed with removing LGBTQ books from school and public library shelves and ensuring students read only the Correct version of American history. The left is obsessed with eradicating right-wing fantasies, not to mention outright lies, from the internet, and with airbrushing or even purging racist texts. You don’t have to stoop to whataboutery to notice a suspicious resemblance. But once again is wrong. We’ve always fought these wars, even if the enemies come and go. In this book, I’ll explore the history and politics of anxieties about readers and reading—anxieties that have repeatedly triggered homicidal fury (I am not writing hyperbolically). The tale is mordantly interesting and offers insight into where we are now.

Publication Date

2026

Keywords

censorship, education, free speech, literacy, personhood

Disciplines

First Amendment | Political Theory

Comments

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31389/lsepress.rew

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC-BY-NC 4.0) License (unless stated otherwise within the content of the work). To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. This license allows for copying any part of the work for personal use, providing author attribution is clearly stated.

Recommended Citation

Herzog, Don (2026) Reading Wars, London: LSE Press. https://doi.org/10.31389/lsepress.rew.