Storm in the Mountains: A Case Study of Censorship, Conflict, and Consciousness

542 Pages·1989·1.31 MB·English

by  James Moffett

Storm in the Mountains : A Case Study of
title:
Censorship, Conflict, and Consciousness
author: Moffett, James.
publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
isbn10 | asin: 080931584X
print isbn13: 9780809315840
ebook isbn13: 9780585276762
language: English
Textbooks--West Virginia--Kanawha
subject
County--Censorship--Case studies.
publication date: 1989
lcc: LB3045.7.M64 1989eb
ddc: 379.1/56
Textbooks--West Virginia--Kanawha
subject:
County--Censorship--Case studies.
Page ii
Storm in the Mountains
A Case Study of Censorship, Conflict, and Consciousness
James Moffett
Southern Illinois University Press
Carbondale and Edwardsville
Page iv
Copyright © 1988 by the Board of Trustees
Southern Illinois University
All rights reserved
First paperback edition published 1989
Printed in the United States of America
Edited by Stephen W. Smith
Designed by Natalia Nadraga
98 97 96 95 6 5 4 3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Moffett, James.
Storm in the mountains.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Textbooks West Virginia Kanawha County
Censorship Case Studies. I. Title.
LB3045.7.M64 1988 379.1'56 87-20614
ISBN 0-8093-1584-X (pbk.)
Grateful acknowledgement of permission to reprint is extended for the
following: From "My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew,"
excerpt from The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin. Copyright ©
1962, 1963 by James Baldwin. Reprinted by permission of Doubleday
& Company, Inc. Also from The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin,
reprinted by permission of Michael Joseph Ltd. From Conley, T. R.
(1976) "Scream Silently: One View of the Kanawha County Textbook
Controversy," Journal of Research and Development in Education,
Vol. 9(3), 93101. From ''Journey of the Magi" from Collected Poems
19091962 by T. S. Eliot, reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber
Ltd. Also from "Journey of the Magi" in Collected Poems 19091962
by T. S. Eliot, copyright 1936 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.;
copyright © 1963, 1964 by T. S. Eliot. Reprinted by permission of the
publisher. From the record album Textbook War Hills of West Virginia,
by permission of the Rev. Avis Hill. "Snake" copyright © 1955 by
Theodore Roethke from The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke.
Reprinted by permission of Doubleday & Company, Inc. Also
reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd. from The Collected
Poems of Theodore Roethke. "The Gray Squirrel" by Humbert Wolfe,
from Kensington Gardens (London: Ernest Benn Ltd., 1924), by
permission of Ann Wolfe. From "A Dance for Ma Rainey" by Al
Young, from The New Black Poetry, ed. Clarence Major, 1969, by
permission of International Publishers Co., Inc., New York.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standard for Information Sciences
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-
1984.
Page v
To my wife Janet for the many ways in which she
participated in the creation of this book
Page vii
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Part 1. The Drama
Prologue. West By God Virginia 3
1. Storm in the Mountains 11
2. The Reverberating Network 26
3. Kanawha County and Orange County 35
Part 2. Voices from the Fray
4. Father, Make Them One 53
5. Free Enterprise 69
6. Through a Glass, Darkly 82
7. Race War, Holy War 94
Part 3. What's in the Books
8. Commies and Sex 103
9. McGuffey Rides Again 116
10. Anyone for the Classics? 128
11. The Innocence Is the Crime 135
12. Man's Head, Beast Body 145
13. Reading Comprehension 157
14. Petrified 174
Part 4. Diagnosing Agnosis
15. Ideology and Bed-Wetting 187
Page viii
16. Group Rule 203
17. Playing with I.D. Cards 215
18. Tales Out of School 224
References 241
Notes 246
Index 253
Page ix
PREFACE
Burning books is not a serious form of censorship today. When
Alexandria's libraries were set afire by both pagans and Christians, it
was serious indeed. Many irreplaceable volumes vanished of which
we can only imagine the loss on the basis of the books that do survive
from antiquity. But since the printing press and the copying machine,
the burning of books has become merely symbolic. What is the
equivalent today of the Alexandrian devastations occurs daily as
worthy manuscripts are winnowed out for rejection in the selection
process of the publishing world by the tight constraints of profit-only
marketing.
Few publishers read manuscripts anymore that they have not received
from agents or authors already known. Since agents screen for the big
sellers they narrow drastically what reaches publishers. There most
editors today are told what to accept by the marketing staff, who get
their notion of a good book from their field salespeople and the sales
figures themselves. Three large bookstore chains are rapidly driving
out independent booksellers and establishing categories and patterns
for success that publishers feel obliged to fit. Tax laws no longer
exempt publishers' inventories, so that most editors tend to reject
manuscripts that they think will not pay big the first season out but
only pay their way over the long haul.
All of these factors combine to restrict enormously what the public
will be allowed to read. Censorship in the United States today comes
not from a government suppressing ideas but from a corporate
industry making money. The most fanatic censors could not wreak
damage of this magnitude. Burned books have at least seen the light
of day, and other copies can be found elsewhere. But we will never
know what worthy books are not published, no more than we will ever
know what the books destroyed in Alexandria had to say.
The constraints on the publication of textbooks exceed by far those
just described for general trade books. The stakes are much higher,
because textbooks are usually produced in series and in hardcover,
most often entail huge outlays of capital for development, and must
conform