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25 Obras 1,095 Miembros 10 Reseñas

Sobre El Autor

Neil Miller teaches journalism at Tufts University and is the award-winning author of five nonfiction books. His most recent work, Kartchner Caverns, won the 2009 Arizona Book Award. Miller lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Obras de Neil Miller

Banned in Boston (2010) 67 copias
Sex-Crime Panic (2002) 59 copias

Etiquetado

Conocimiento común

Miembros

Reseñas

This is a great history and very readable. I whipped through most of the book. When it got to the era where I was affected by the history it too me longer to read merely because of the emotions and memories it brought back. Great read.
 
Denunciada
JRobinW | 2 reseñas más. | Jan 20, 2023 |
I first read sections of this book when it was fairly recent, in the late 1990s, but at the time, I didn't have the time for the rest, so I put it on my TBR list. I didn't think it would take me twenty years to get there (and over five years with the book waiting on my shelves).

Reading the final section on the progress of gay rights in the 1980s and 1990s it feels there's been significant change since then, but with the increasing influence of right-wing politics maybe some of that ground is disappearing, not for the first time in history. I like this book for including excerpts from books and other materials to illustrate the topics discussed.… (más)
 
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mari_reads | 2 reseñas más. | Oct 13, 2021 |
Banned in Boston is a faithful and comprehensive history of the operations of the Watch and Ward Society, an organization dedicated to guarding the moral character of that city for about a century. But the book's focus is to document, not to speculate on the nature and implications of censorship. So if you are looking for an account of how our ideas of censorship and freedom of speech have evolved, then Banned in Boston is more of a "case history" than a deep exploration into the question.

I did find the extended section on Burlesque theater really interesting (indeed, how could anyone not?). And, a former Boston bookseller myself, I was surprised at how widely accepted the idea of censorship was in the city, and for how long--apparently, the position of "Official Censor" -- a city government position, was only abolished in 1982, two years before I first came to Boston for college.

And it did renew my interest in HL Mencken.

The high point of the book from my perspective was not the well-drawn portraits of the succession of leaders of the Watch and Ward, or their differing approaches--some pugnacious men on a moral crusade, some preferring to work behind the scenes, flexing their power and privilege (and sense of moral rightness) quietly. Those were interesting enough, but the book really came into focus for me when the understanding that existed between the Watch and Ward, law enforcement, and Boston's booksellers--something called "The Gentlemen's Agreement" -- began to break down.

The Gentlemen's Agreement was an unwritten directive, whereby the Watch & Ward would quietly notify booksellers that a book had been determined to be obscene and "actionable" (that is, in violation of the state's obscenity laws), and booksellers would just as quietly remove all copies from their shelves. If they failed to do so, they risked being brought up on criminal charges for being purveyors of obscene material if they happened to sell a copy. Both Watch and Ward and police were in the habit of trying to purchase books deemed actionable in undercover operations, and then arresting (or demanding the arrest of) the unfortunate clerk who unknowingly ran afoul of the law. Prior to the Gentlemen's Agreement, the arrest and trial was the only way to receive an official ruling on the obscene nature of a book--basically, bookstores wouldn't know a book was actionable until action was taken. The Agreement sidestepped the problem by letting booksellers know which titles would land them in court cases if they were sold. No muss, no fuss, and the people of Boston never even knew that there were gaps on the shelves.

It was illuminating to learn how meekly the city's booksellers acquiesced to this state of affairs, where some extra-official entity would, without transparency or oversight or method of appeal, have the final say over what could be sold in a bookstore. But "Free Speech" didn't have the meaning it does now, and censorship was only one of a number of areas in which the Watch and Ward was concerned. It also raided gambling dens, exposed hotels that were acting as brothels, went after speakeasies and dope dens, and in general guarded the moral character of the city. At a certain period their influence was absolute and no one seemed to question that their role was a necessary and good one.

Except the writers. H.L. Mencken was the first to get himself deliberately arrested in order to expose the capriciousness of Boston's obscenity laws and the way they were enforced. But other authors (and their publishers) eventually followed suit, recognizing the potential for publicity....to the point where being "banned in Boston" was a sure way to get one's book national attention and sales. Upton Sinclair parlayed his novel "Oil" into a national bestseller by making the most of its trial for obscenity in Boston. Erskine Caldwell, Lillian Hellman, Ernest Hemingway, Theodore Dreiser.....writer after writer who produced what we now deem as American classics had their day in court in Boston---mostly with excellent results in terms of sales in the rest of the country.

And judge after judge found themselves increasingly frustrated at the hopeless attempt to determine a legal definition of good literary taste -- until eventually even the prosecutors in these cases told the Watch and Ward representatives that despite their duty to uphold the letter of the law, they were not in sympathy with the goals (not to mention the secretive and underhanded methods) of the Society to ensnare booksellers in their pursuit of morally questionable literature.

It was the ridiculousness of having to determine the immoral nature of books like "Oil" or "The Sun Also Rises" that eventually led to the booksellers of Boston to reject the role of the Watch and Ward, and to the Massachusetts State legislature to completely rewrite the obscenity laws. So that by the time I stepped off the bus in the Boston terminal in the early 1980s, suitcase in hand and a suggested reading list from my college adviser I was to complete before the semester started, there was not a single book on the list that could not be found in any of the numerous bookstores in the city. And the idea that any of them might be banned for obscenity was as absurd a notion as the idea of the Watch and Ward members handing out free copies of "Lady Chatterley's Lover."
… (más)
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Denunciada
southernbooklady | 2 reseñas más. | Jul 6, 2014 |
To be honest, before reading this book I was only familiar with the phrase "Banned in Boston" in relation to the GG Allin compilation album. Miller provides a fascinating history into censorship in Boston as developed and maintained by the Watch and Ward Society - an independent, secretive, private organization that decided the reading and theatre habits of Bostonians for decades.
 
Denunciada
katydid-it | 2 reseñas más. | Jun 24, 2011 |

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Obras
25
Miembros
1,095
Popularidad
#23,469
Valoración
3.8
Reseñas
10
ISBNs
25

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