Keeping government censorship at bay

In 2025, public schools continue to see a barrage of requests to ban books.

“Never before in the life of any living American have so many books been systematically removed from school libraries across the country,” PEN America states. “Never before have so many states passed laws or regulations to facilitate the banning of books, including bans on specific titles statewide.”

Though this censorship of materials is new for American schools, it’s been a common practice in claiming power for centuries.

As early as 213 B.C., Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang (more widely remembered for his terracotta army in Xian) ordered a bonfire of books as a way of consolidating power in his new empire.

According to historian Lois Mai Chan, Huang was looking to avoid being compared to more virtuous or successful rulers of the past, specifically targeting books of poetry, philosophy and history.

The book burnings by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were perhaps the most infamous. Perhaps more than 100,000 volumes of “un-German” books were burned in 1933.

The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies described as anti-German. These included books written by Jewish, half-Jewish, communist, socialist and liberal authors, among others. The exclusion of democratic and Jewish literature took precedence over anything else.

But they didn’t just burn books. In Dresden, Saxony, in 1933, a bookstore and newspaper editorial office linked to Socialist Democratic Party was raided. They burned magazines, newspapers, fiction, works by banned authors, as well as leaflets and files.

Oct. 5-11 marks the observance of three weeks in America — Banned Books Week, National Newspaper Week and Fire Prevention Week. Coincidentally, these all tie together on this topic as we seek to prevent the (metaphorical now) burning of books and newspapers.

Today in America, there has been a surge of censorship. Book bans have been increasing for several years, more than 23,000 titles having action taken against them as a result of their content since 2021.

In issuing his executive order, “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” President Donald Trump said, “Imprinting anti-American, subversive, harmful and false ideologies on our nation’s children not only violates longstanding anti-discrimination civil rights law in many cases, but usurps basic parental authority.”

The explanation behind the censorship is eerily similar to that given by Hitler in a situation widely viewed as a low point in human history.

In 1930s Germany, it was Jewish and democratic books being targeted. In 2025 America, it is books by authors of color, by LGBTQ+ authors, by women. Books about racism, sexuality, gender, history, being censored.

Just because the books aren’t being thrown on a bonfire doesn’t mean it isn’t just as bad. Even public libraries are being threatened to lose funding if they don’t comply with the administration’s demands.

But in a world where information is at the tip of your fingers, the Trump Administration is targeting the watch dogs of America — journalists.

Trump has filed lawsuits against outlets whose coverage he dislikes, threatened to revoke TV broadcast licenses and sought to bend news organizations and social media companies to his will.

The Associated Press, a worldwide news organization, was punished by this administration for not adhering to Trump’s demand for them to say “Gulf of America” instead of “Gulf of Mexico.” As America is the only of 195 countries to refer to it as such, AP continues to call it by the name the majority of the world uses.

Trump retaliated by barring AP journalists from the White House. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden (a Trump appointee) ruled in April that the government could not open doors to some journalists and then shut those doors to others because of their viewpoints. “The Constitution requires no less,” he wrote.

AP’s two-month banishment has a huge impact on local newspapers. As we can’t get out and cover national headlines ourselves, we rely on AP to provide us this information to share with our readers. We use AP stories nearly every day.

Even locally we are criticized for publishing opinion columns that don’t fit what others want to hear.

Censorship is not a new word or idea. But it’s never been associated with positive leadership. From the execution of Socrates for his philosophical teachings in 399 B.C. to the film censorship by Joseph Stalin in the early 20th century, regimes have sought to stop the release of information in opposition of their reign.

Stop the burning. Stop the banning. Stop the censorship. We are not a monarchy, and we bow to no king.