Purity in Print: Book Censorship in America from the Gilded Age to the Computer Age (review)

Censorship in one form or another has been a continuing theme in American history since the arrival of the earliest settlers. It has been a favorite theme for book and library scholars as well as for a few professional historians who sometimes seem to present a more contextual, and thus credible, story. Eminent American historian Paul Boyer's initial work dealt with censorship and so-called vice societies from the Civil War to the mid-1930s from the perspective of the turbulent 1960s; it was a useful survey and analysis and won acclaim in diverse quarters. In that work the Harvard-educated scholar and, for the past decade, Merle Curti Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin at Madison saw the liberalization of restrictions on free expression in print in recent years, particularly sexual expression in literature, as a positive development. This was "a sign of increasing maturity and healthy-mindedness" that seemed to be threatened by "the federal government . . . attempting, through the creation of a Presidential advisory commission, to study the alleged effects of obscenity in inducing anti-social behavior," according to Everett Moore's review in this journal (4 [July 1969]: 271). The reviewer concluded that the book was "lively and colorful in its depiction of the never-ending struggle between those who would restrain and those who would free the creative spirit" (ibid., 275).

In the thirty years or so since the 1968 appearance of Boyer's first edition, the themes and environments of censorship in the United States have changed considerably. Yet this edition, appearing at century's end, is again as timely a treatment as its predecessor was nearly two generations before. Revisions or rather extensions of original works are sometimes problematical. Boyer has blended the original nine chapters with two new chapters: chapter 10, "The Shifting Rhythms of Censorship from the 1950s to the 1970s" (270-316), and chapter 11, "1980 to the Present: Symbolic Crusades, Embattled Librarians, Feminist Interventions, New Technologies" (317-60). A new selection of black-and-white illustrations joins those of the first edition, but the bibliographical documentation and the extensive index unify the work into a seamless whole.

Through a series of vignettes and chronological examples, Boyer demonstrates that the period from 1945 to 1975 began with an ever-increasing acceptance of erotic and explicitly sexual descriptions in books and periodicals, thereby demonstrating the growing cultural and social diversity of the nation. At the same time, a certain uneasiness about this, coupled with concern about the great social issues that came to the fore in the 1960s, prompted a countermovement to curb the extremes of expression that were deemed offensive to majority communities. Thus increasing tolerance and increasing intolerance developed as countervailing forces that reflected themselves in the various branches of government, especially the courts and legislative bodies, resulting in mounting tension between the courts and the general public.

The period from about 1980 to the present increased this polarization, with the legislative and executive branches of government frequently siding with the citizen majority against the courts and the progressive minority. The various waves of censorship reflected the unique political, cultural, and technological realities of the times. The Reagan years stimulated restrictions in print that went beyond the early Nixon years through the conservative religious and political Right movements and the actions of antiporn feminists, who found themselves with unlikely allies. All this unfolded as new communications technologies developed from the mid-1980s onward—a movement that brought new attempts at exploitation and regulation. The promoters of the escalating pornography industry, supported by civil libertarians, seemed pitted against earnest family defenders, supported by politicians who played to the stands. Individual liberty and common decency appeared to be at odds. Moreover, some of those who...