English event highlights history of free speech, censorship

Was John Milton the original prophet of modern-day free speech? His relentless pursuit of freedom of the press in the 1600s supports such a claim.

Milton’s series of publications arguing for the legality and morality of divorce stirred public disapproval but ultimately led to his attacks on pre-publication censorship — a key topic brought up in the Department of English’s recent crosstalk event on Feb. 25.

English faculty gathered to discuss their work within their individual disciplines on free speech and regulation, whether by the markets or government, from the 17th century to today. The comparisons of current events, American textbooks and Hollywood rating systems were among the subjects faculty members spoke about with the audience.

Professor David Hawkes introduced Milton’s rebellious nature during the English Civil War. His work is often revisited decades later, including by the United States’ founding fathers.

“He thought that he was bringing new truths into the world, and he thought that he had lessons to teach that nobody had ever taught before,” Hawkes said. “Among the most important of these lessons was that publication should be unrestricted and that the censorship, at least the state censorship, should be lifted and people should be free to discuss whatever they wanted.”

Related: An ASU-led rare book find

The English Civil War allowed private citizens the ability to speak on public matters. At the time, Milton’s newlywed wife had run from him, prompting his pro-divorce publications. Despite reimpositions of censorship, his efforts led to the publication of “Areopagitica,” his challenge to the British Parliament, arguing for the freedom of the press against censorship.

So how did this idea of censorship evolve beyond the English borders? It showed up, or didn’t for that matter, in early editions of American textbooks.

Joe Lockard, an associate professor in the department, discussed the use of school readers, or textbooks, in the 1800s as education rapidly expanded. By 1847, Noah Webster’s “Blue-Back Speller” sold an estimated 24 million copies. However, the removal of historical events and topics isn’t new in the 21st century, but began as textbooks became more common in the classroom.

“By the 1830s, school textbooks represented approximately one-third of the U.S. publishing market in dollar value, and that increased to over 40% prior to the Civil War,” Lockard said.

In order to avoid controversy, publishers engaged in what Lockard refers to as market censorship. Publishers had eliminated references of slavery to appeal to more markets in the Southern market, while those in the North wanted to avoid controversy.

Market censorship also applies to the entertainment industry. Associate Professor Kevin Sandler, a film and media studies specialist, reviewed the process behind Hollywood rating systems. The current system is run by the Classification and Rating Administration, an independent division of the Motion Picture Association, or MPA.

Before 1968, film content was patrolled by the Motion Picture Production Code — also known as the “Hays Code” — a structure of self-censorship by the movie studios themselves.

“Their job was to find a compromise between the aims of the market censors to limit potentially offensive material and the aims of producers who would want to preserve the most controversial elements in the film to help sell it,” Sandler said.

Last spring, Sandler and his students used a newly available database, with access provided by ASU Library, to MPA Production Code records. The large collection provided insight on criteria used to shape film content in that earlier era. Sandler highlighted an example from correspondence about the 1930s adaptation of Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men,” where censors argued that care should be taken to avoid a character being perceived as sexually deviant.

“My students analyzed these documents and charted this process along with other historical evidence in a way to determine the social forces that would have shaped the moment of film regulation.”

The class put together analyses of these influences on productions, including “Of Mice and Men,” as well as of other of Steinbeck’s works like “The Grapes of Wrath” and “East of Eden.” Sandler and his students will present their research at the upcoming Steinbeck conference to be held at ASU March 11–13.

Back in the classroom, market censorship has continued to be relevant today in the publishing industry, especially with what is made available in public schools for children to read.

Foundation Professor Krista Ratcliffe studies rhetoric and composition. Her discussion focused on the four stases of classical rhetoric and invention, a classical system used to work out disputes. The stases are fact, definition, quality and action. To analyze these, she looked at a school district in Florida.

“The stasis theory proceeds via sequential questioning, offering places in the mind where people can go to ask questions, to generate information, to discover arguments and maybe find common ground originating in law,” Ratcliffe said. “The four classical stases have moved beyond the courtroom today and can be used to analyze lots of things.”

A debate in 2021 centered around Orange County Public Schools and whether or not a book should be available for students. The controversy sparked a series of laws to be passed throughout the country about parental involvement in curriculum. Parental rights in education laws, compared to right to read laws, show different approaches on how and if parents can pull their students out of assignments, or books in this case, that they don’t agree with.

Since 2021, there have been 22,810 instances of book bans, with nearly 6,900 bans cataloged in the 2024–25 school year. Josh Coleman, an assistant professor, has been studying this topic for an upcoming book project.

“While a number of organizations are tracking book bans at a national level, I wanted to understand how educational gag orders were impacting the day-to-day experiences of teachers, librarians and other educational stakeholders who were living them out in real time,” Coleman said.

His research took him to Iowa, where he spoke with those affected by these bans in order to find ways to better support teachers through education on context, risks and laws being passed.

Applied linguist Peter Torres, an assistant professor, spoke about the social aspects of language and how self-censorship in higher education classrooms impacts the quality and content of discussions.

“I love teaching my undergraduate social linguistics course because students get to realize that even if they speak the same standard dialect, they disagree on whether Elvis Presley's last name is (pronounced) Presley with an S or with a Z,” Torres said.

Torres coaches his students to recognize their own usage of language while noticing and appreciating others’ use.

With centuries of time between now and Milton’s quest for unrestricted publishing in the 17th century, discussions about freedom of expression continue to be relevant.

“It was purely selfish motives that pulled (Milton) into this position, but I think without those selfish motives, he could never have got there so far before everyone else. So I think we must be grateful for Milton's wife deserting him,” Hawkes said.