We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Open Road Media Announces Creation of Forbidden Bookshelf

Click here to access article by Jack from Open Road Integrated Media.
Open Road Media announced today Forbidden Bookshelf, a series of books curated by Professor Mark Crispin Miller of New York University. Forbidden Bookshelf titles fill in the blanks of America’s repressed history by resurrecting books that focused on issues and events that are too often left in the dark, including abortion, organized crime, the CIA, and financial inequality.
From my experience I have seen a number of ways that books are censored in the US. Often printing companies refuse to print books they know will be seen as highly offensive to the core directors of our ruling class, or succumb to pressure from various authorities not to print a book. 

In the past many authors were forced to publish their own books or publish through very small, obscure, sometimes foreign publishing firms: authors such as Upton Sinclair, L. Fletcher Prouty, journalists like George Seldes, and military people like General Smedley ButlerSuch authors will discover that after they've succeeded in getting the book published that they likely won't be reviewed anywhere in media of any size or significance, or if they are, the books will be smeared, and thus will remain largely unread. Then such books go out of print for lack of sales. Of course, such books rarely make it into educational institutions and libraries.