In this gracefully written, accessible and entertaining volume, John Semonche surveys censorship for reasons of sex from the nineteenth century up to the present. He covers the various forms of American media-books and periodicals, pictorial art, motion pictures, music and dance, and radio, television, and the Internet. The tale is varied and interesting, replete with a stock of colorful characters such as Anthony Comstock, Mae West, Theodore Dreiser, Marcel Duchamp, Opie and Anthony, Judy Blume, Jerry Falwell, Alfred Kinsey, Hugh Hefner, and the Guerilla Girls. Covering the history of censorship of sexual ideas and images is one way of telling the story of modern America, and Semonche tells that tale with insight and flair. Despite the varieties of censorship, running from self-censorship to government bans, a common story is told. Censorship, whether undertaken to ward off government regulation, to help preserve the social order, or to protect the weak and vulnerable, proceeds on the assumption that the censor knows best and that limiting the choices of media consumers is justified. At various times all of the following groups were perceived as needing protection from sexually explicit materials: children, women, the lower classes, and foreigners. As social and political conditions changed, however, the simple fact that someone was a woman or a day laborer did not support stereotyping that person as weak or impressionable. What would remain as the only acceptable rationale for censorship of sexual materials was the protection of children and unconsenting adults. For each mode of media, Semonche explains via abundant examples how and why censorship took place in America. Censoring Sex also traces the story of how the cultural territory contested by those advocating and opposing censorship has diminished over the course of the last two centuries. Yet, Semonche argues, the censorship of sexual materials that continues in the United States poses a challenge to the free speech that is part of the f

This ambitious and accessible history of the nation's highest court contains information important for every American to know. Widely published historian John E. Semonche demonstrates that the fabric of American constitutional law promotes in citizens a 'civil religion, ' or a faith in the laws and institutions of government that is unique to this country. Semonche supports his arguments by analyzing the Court's controversies, members, and decisions from its creation to the present. He concludes that, aside from its judicial responsibilities, the Supreme Court plays an equally crucial role in the creation, definition, and maintenance of a culture tolerant of a diverse and pluralistic polity. Everyone interested in the past, present, and future of this essential American institution should read this book

This biography of the journalist's early life, from his birth in 1870 to his departure for Europe on a special mission for President Woodrow Wilson in 1918, is as much a study of the changing times in which Baker lived as of the man himself. It is the first book to place Baker within a significant context, and as such it presents a full and historically useful portrait of an influential figure in American journalism.
Originally published in 1969.
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