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That book is dangerous! : how moral panic, social media, and the culture wars are remaking publishing  Cover Image Book Book

That book is dangerous! : how moral panic, social media, and the culture wars are remaking publishing / Adam Szetela.

Szetela, Adam, (author.).

Summary:

An alarming exposé of the new challenges to literary freedom in the age of social media -- when anyone with an identity and an internet connection can be a censor. In That Book Is Dangerous!, Adam Szetela investigates how well-intentioned and often successful efforts to diversify American literature have also produced serious problems for literary freedom. Although progressives are correct to be focused on right-wing attempts at legislative censorship, Szetela argues for attention to the ways that left-wing censorship controls speech within the publishing industry itself. The author draws on interviews with presidents and vice presidents at the Big Five publishers, literary agents at the most prestigious agencies, award-winning authors, editors, marketers, sensitivity readers, and other industry professionals to examine the new publishing landscape. What he finds is unsettling: mandatory sensitivity reads; morality clauses in author contracts; even censorship of "dangerous" books in the name of antiracism, feminism, and other forms of social justice. These changes to acquisition practices, editing policies, and other aspects of literary culture are a direct outgrowth of the culture of public outcries on X, Goodreads, Change.org, and other online platforms, where users accuse authors -- justifiably or not -- of racism, sexism, homophobia, and other transgressions. But rather than genuinely address the economic inequities of literary production, this current moral crusade over literature serves only to entrench the status quo. "While the right is remaking the world in its image," he writes, "the left is standing in a circular firing squad." Compellingly argued and incisively written, the book is a much-needed wake-up call for anyone who cares about reading, writing, and the publication of books -- as well as the generations of young readers we are raising.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780262049856 (hardcover)
  • Physical Description: 273 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
  • Publisher: Cambridge, MA : The MIT Press, [2025]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Subject: Cancel culture > United States.
Censorship in literature > United States.
Culture conflict > United States.
Moral panics > United States.
Political correctness > United States.
Publishers and publishing > United States.
Social media > Political aspects > United States.

Available copies

  • 0 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Cookstown Branch 363.310973 Sze 31681010432219 NONFIC In process -


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