Sir, E-Mailing by Candlelight. Times letter writers on University ‘blacklisting’ of books
On the 10th August the Murdoch Times published an ‘investigation’ into Universities allegedly removing controversial books from reading lists. 300 Freedom of Information requests found that just two Universities and moved a book from essential to secondary reading.
In fact what the Times was really obsessing about was trigger warnings on books. In essence these just give an indication of some of the subjects the book covers. Not really something to froth at the mouth about.
On 11th August the paper published a selection of readers letters on the subject. E P Thompson wrote an essay ‘Sir, Writing by Candlelight’ about reactionary Times letter writers 50 years ago. The standard is clearly in decline. Where is the letter demanding that all books by Marxists are blacklisted for example?
A more relevant point was raised by history academic John Foot on social media. How many students read books on set reading lists? I never did
Hello Keith,
Re: M. Hollier’s letter from Winchester.
All all the letter reactions to this fake news perhaps the most amusing is the assumption that there is a public library in the community to fall back on.
They are closed or run by companies who employ ‘leisure staff’ not trained Librarians who would order a broad range of books both reference and fiction. Too late for reactionaries to return their overdue books now.
D Maple