Banned Books Week Library Lesson - History of Censorship - Fahrenheit 451

This presentation is perfect for Banned Books Week or as an introduction to book burning in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. The slides give a brief history of nine censorship and book banning incidents in world history.

FAST FACTS ABOUT THIS HISTORY OF CENSORSHIP PRESENTATION:

• Recommended for: Grades 8+
• Number of Student Slides: 21
• Editable: YES, all text is editable
• Lesson Duration: at least one class period (50 minutes)

A WORD OF CAUTION

Discussing censorship can be controversial in certain settings. It's why Banned Books Week exists - so we can talk about censorship. It is, however, critical that you know your audience and your community.

Please have a look at the Preview button before you buy to make sure this presentation will fit the needs of your school.

LOOKING FOR AN ACTIVITY FOR RECENT CENSORSHIP EVENTS?

Try my Censorship Discussion Activity for Grades 8-12! This gets students to research and discuss recent censorship situations in current events. It's guaranteed to get your students talking!

HOW ACCURATE IS THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION?

This book banning lesson was thoroughly researched using peer-reviewed journals from Academic Search Premier and EbscoHost databases.

The Works Cited page appears on the final slide.

Each slides also includes full bibliographic citations in the Notes section.

INFORMATION ABOUT BOOK CENSORSHIP INCLUDES:

• What is censorship?
• Who are the censors?
• Common ways library books are censored (torn pages, drawing "clothes" over body parts, marking out words, etc.)
• What is book banning?
• What is book burning and how is it used symbolically?
• Why are books censored and/or banned?
• 9 historical censorship events (listed below)

9 HISTORICAL BOOK CENSORSHIP EVENTS INCLUDE:

• 213 BC - China - Emperor Qin Shi Huang
• 640 AD- Egypt- Caliph Omar burned all 200,000 volumes in the Library of Alexandria
• 1497-98 - Florence, Italy - "The Bonfire of the Vanities"
• 1600-1966 - The Index Librorum Prohibitorum - Catholic Church bans over 5200 books
• 1616-1652 - Galileo Galilei convicted of heresy over heliocentric theory papers
• 1859 - Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species
• 1933 - Nazi book burnings
• 1960s-1970s - Mao Zedong of China - Cultural Revolution
• Today- "Great Firewall of China" and censorship of social media, newspapers, and books

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