Lecture 2 Notes: Censorship and Cultural Change

Responses and Readings

Responses to films were good, but readings are equally or more important.
Films provide context (e.g., The Age of Innocence showing Comstock's protected world, Gangs of New York showing Comstock's feared immigrant world).
Beisel's analysis explains Comstock's influence between 1873 and 1915.
Tie films and readings together in responses.
End responses with a question to prompt commentary from groupmates.
Submit papers on time to allow groupmates adequate time for commentary.

Movements to protect children emerge in social and cultural contexts during times of sociological transformation.
Traditional conventions are threatened by new ideas, technology, and demographics, causing disruptions.
Distinguish genuine concerns for children's welfare from cynical use of rhetoric for reactionary purposes.
Consider who should judge the moral content of art and literature, or if it should be judged at all.
Censorship requires buy-in from the people to succeed.
Censorship can increase sales, referencing Walt Whitman.

Comstock and censors of the late 19th century believed in the superiority of their values and the progress of society based on traditional order (God, country, family).
This belief in unending progress and American exceptionalism ended due to:
- World War One: Unprecedented carnage.
- Bolshevik Revolution: Rise of communism.
These events altered the global landscape and led to new forces controlling speech, like J. Edgar Hoover.

America initially watched the war from afar.
Woodrow Wilson pledged to keep America out of the war but later joined alongside England, France, and Russia.
A propaganda campaign (posters, press releases, films) shaped American support for the war.
Propaganda is the opposite side of censorship as it spins and controls ideas.
Some Americans still opposed the war.

Wilson's Congress enacted laws criminalizing anti-war speech and activity:
- Espionage Act of 1917
- Trading with the Enemy Act of 1918
- Sedition Amendment of 1918
These acts regressed free speech and caused disillusionment.

Lenin and the Bolsheviks seized control in 1917, establishing a communist regime.
Communism replaced democracy and capitalism with a state-owned economy and wealth redistribution.
The American government feared communism would take hold in America.
Immigration from Central and Eastern Europe (often Jewish industrial workers) fueled these fears.
Workers, including communists and anarchists, demonstrated for better conditions. Efforts sometimes became radicalized.

Radicalized workers and new cultural forces threatened the pre-WWI world.
- The "New Woman"/Flapper
- Freudianism
- Free Love
- Divorce
- Car Culture
- Nineteenth Amendment
These threatened the nuclear family and patriarchal control.
Evolution influenced religious thought, leading to religious fundamentalism (Scopes Trial).
Prohibition led to organized crime and speakeasies.
The 1920s were a decade of drastic change.

This decade altered Victorian American societal norms and the literary landscape.
It ushered in the modern aesthetic, breaking sharply with realism and moral didacticism.
Authors like James Joyce, John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and D.H. Lawrence critiqued the American experience and its hypocrisy.
They experimented with form, explored sexuality and psychology, challenged capitalism, and rejected moral didacticism.

Anthony Comstock died before these changes, but J. Edgar Hoover (FBI director 1924-1973) continued his work.
Under Hoover, Victorianism evolved into Americanism.
God, country, family, and capitalism became pillars of American identity.
Consider the Joyce Collerton reading, Joyce and the G-Men, about the censorship of James Joyce.
How real was the fear of communism, radicalism, and anarchism?
The movie No God, No Master shows anarchism and radicalism in 1920s New York City.
Did Hoover begin in good faith, or was it always about power?
Comstock had popular support. Did Hoover have the same?
As FBI director, Hoover terrorized writers, editors, publishers, and newspapers supporting labor.
He targeted those sentimentalizing the working class or advocating for social change.
Sexuality and stream of consciousness were linked to communism.

In 1933, the Woolsey decision allowed publication of Ulysses in the US, coinciding with Nazi book burnings.
This highlighted the importance of freedom of expression.
During WWII, courts extended First Amendment rights to books previously deemed obscene.
The Cold War brought a new wave of politically motivated censorship.
Hoover's Americanism turned into Joseph McCarthy's obsession with communism.
The McCarthy hearings created a culture of fear and demanded conformity to God, country, family, and capitalism.
This was the era of "Leave it to Beaver," which was repressive, rigid, conformist, and homophobic.