Banned Books

About this Collection

Updated: Sept. 23, 2014.

Many of the works in the Online Library of Liberty have been banned or censored at various times by governments, established churches, and pubic schools for their content. This list has been compiled from the following sources:

• Beacon for Freedom of Expression. Dedicated to the Library of Alexandria.
• Essay on The Long History of Censorship
• See, the Beacon for Freedom of Expression database of banned books where you can search for your favorite author. My search revealed the following:
• 10 books by Hayek and one by Frdric Bastiat were banned by the Communist Government in Poland between 1976 and 1989
• the Dictionnaire de l'conomie politique was put on the “Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index on Banned Books) by the Catholic Church in 1856.
• The American Library Association: Celebrating the Freedom to Read
• University of Pennsylvania The Online Books Page - Banned Books Online
• Wikipedia List of Banned Books:
• List of books banned by governments
• List of authors and works on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum
• Index of Prohibited Books 1557-1966 (Fordham University)

Members:

• The Advancement of Learning (Sir Francis Bacon)
• The Analects (Confucius)
• Areopagitica (1644) (Jebb ed.) (John Milton)
• The Barber of Seville, or the Useless Precaution (Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais)
• Candide, ou l’Optimisme; traduit de l’Allemand de M. le Docteur Ralph (Voltaire)
• The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza, vol 1 (Benedict de Spinoza)
• The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume II - The Principles of Political Economy I (John Stuart Mill)
• The Colloquies 2 vols. (Desiderius Erasmus)
• The Complaint of Peace (Desiderius Erasmus)
• The Merchant of Venice (William Shakespeare)
• Twelfth-Night: or, What You Will (William Shakespeare)
• Macbeth (William Shakespeare)
• King Lear (William Shakespeare)
• The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. 4 (The Canterbury Tales) (Geoffrey Chaucer)
• Complete Works, vol. 3 (Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu)
• Critique of Pure Reason (Immanuel Kant)
• The Divine Comedy, in 3 vols. (Langdon trans.) (Dante Alighieri)
• The English Works, vol. X (Iliad and Odyssey) (Homer)
• Enquiries Concerning the Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals (David Hume)
• Essays of Montaigne, in 10 vols. (Michel de Montaigne)
• The Historical, Political, and Diplomatic Writings, vol. 2 (Niccolo Machiavelli)
• The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 12 vols. (Edward Gibbon)
• The Holy Qur-an (Koran) (Arabic and English) (Muhammad)
• Ideal Empires and Republics (Sir Francis Bacon)
• In Praise of Folly (Desiderius Erasmus)