How to Defend Books and Why: Book Bans and How We Fight Them

A kindhearted and rousing invitation to the book revolution!

Fight back against right-wing censorship and empower your community with this close look at the book banning movement. In a moving call to arms for readers everywhere, Danny Caine, bestselling author of How to Resist Amazon and Why and How to Protect Bookstores and Why, offers an expertly-crafted confrontation of Christian nationalist attempts to reshape American culture through ban campaigns targeting schools, libraries, and marginalized identities—in life and in literature. From the first-ever banned books display at San Francisco's City Lights in the 1950s to the rapid rise of so-called Moms For Liberty during the COVID-19 pandemic, Caine charts the course of repressive censorship campaigns, along with the creative and sometimes unlikely activists who've stood up against them. Each chapter is based on a particular book banning episode, bolstered by research and legal precedent, and concludes with helpful takeaways for further reading or resistance. Throughout, Caine approaches these heated issues with gentle openness harkening back to his work as a public school teacher and a bookseller, emphasizing our collective responsibility towards art, free speech, and each other.