On Book Banning

Reviews / Votes

Praise for On Book Banning

"Cogent and incisive."
-Michael Dirda, Washington Post

"In On Book Banning, Ira Wells offers direct and incisive writing that brings suppressed voices into the light and challenges readers to question the moral authority of censorship. Refusing both academic detachment and easy provocation, Wells presents rigorous research with clarity and balance, pairing the ridiculous with the brilliant. His work is passionate and compassionate, inviting sustained reflection on freedom, responsibility, and the imperfect humanity behind all writing, and leaving readers with a deeper, more self-aware engagement with literature."
-Jury Citation, 2026 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing

"Though book banning is usually associated with repressive or conservative mindsets-ancient Rome, or Florida moms-even classic texts have fallen prey of late to a 'censorship consensus' enforced by liberal-minded gatekeepers. In the latest in Biblioasis's continuing Field Notes series, Wells seeks to define the controversial practice and explore its effects."
-Globe and Mail

"Wells delivers a potent behind-the-scenes look at book banning in this standout account . . . [and] convincingly advocates for teachers to center ambiguity, sympathy, and curiosity when teaching about language, rather than harm, and for 'the building of critical thinking abilities.' It's a decisive and fascinating take on a hot-button issue."
-Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A slim, surprisingly reassuring treatise about censoring the shelves . . . Wells excels at that writerly skill of toggling easily between good storytelling and helpful summative assessments . . . it's the historical, psychological, and philosophical explorations that really characterize the narrative and distinguish it from the other volumes on the topic."
-Sarah Trembath, Washington Independent Review of Books

"A concise, exquisite, and tidy inquiry into our common desire to protect against the other. Wells serves up a masterful and provocative treatise about the nature of free speech and the power of the written word."
-Winnipeg Free Press

"With this slim volume . . . Wells persuasively explains how book banning reduces and devalues art and how it constitutes an attack on intellectual autonomy and on 'your right to determine the future of your own mind.'"
-Keith Garebian, Literary Review of Canada

"This slender volume makes for excellent conversational kindling. More than a definitive treatise or clear prescription for protecting the right to read, it serves as a starting point for serious thinking about the question. The book is an embodiment of its core values, engaging with multiple viewpoints and arguments."
-Julie Sedivy, Alberta Views

"[A] thoroughly researched, well cited, and thought-provoking work on the past history and current state of book banning."
-Anne Logan, I've Read This

"This book is best read twice: once, to appreciate the author's prose and his care in reporting both his own experience and the record, both recent and historical of book banning and the associated rationales; and then, with others having continuing professional responsibilities for maintaining libraries, to explore the author's insights in concrete contexts."
-Dick Ellis, ELAN

"A thought-provoking read. Wells is not afraid to pose tough questions or hack through thickets of thorny issues . . . For readers concerned about intellectual freedom, On Book Banning is worth a look."
-Lisa Timpf, Seaboard Review of Books

"On Book Banning provides a multidimensional examination of book banning through North American history up until very recently . . . Horrifying, enraging, and scintillating stuff."
-Thalia Stopa, Scout Magazine

"[A] timely addition to the book banning and censorship discourse . . . What makes this work valuable and a true expansion of what we think of when it comes to banning books is that it explores how both sides of the political spectrum are banning books in one form or another . . . [On Book Banning] should provide a great vehicle for discussion among students, librarians, and practitioners."
-Choice Reviews

"Both important and urgent [and] its value enduring . . . I can only hope that it will find its way to libraries across the land."
-The Miramichi Reader

"Timely and relevant, balanced and engaging."
-Marcie McCauley, Buried In Print

"What emerges in this deceptively slim and powerful volume is the voice of a devoted reader-On Book Banning is a testament to the life-altering power of books and ideas."
-Quill & Quire (starred review)

"An expert assessment of literary censorship and a strong rebuttal to contemporary book bans."
-Foreword Reviews

"A thoughtful, conversationally written reflection on why banning books damages the fabric of social belonging."
-Kirkus Reviews

"Censorship from groups such as Moms for Liberty is rampant, but Wells points out that liberal censorship and cancel culture are on the rise as well. Both, Wells argues, are challenges to democracy . . . [On Book Banning] calls out different groups' definitions of harm and warns of the intellectual deterioration these conflicts cause."
-Booklist

"Beneath the elegant prose of this small volume lies a vast urgency and passion about language, books, and human consciousness. The hot-button political debates-about freedom of thought and the value of open access, and the depredations of governments and activists to control both-are set against a background of deep yearning for connection between minds. Wells has given us a wise and powerful example of that very thing."
-Mark Kingwell, author of Question Authority: A Polemic about Trust in Five Meditations

"In this impressive book, Ira Wells provides an insightful and engaging discussion of the renewed embrace of censorship by both progressives and traditionalists and what it can mean for the possibility of building a more socially just and democratic society today. On Book Banning is a gem that I cannot recommend highly enough."
-James L. Turk, Director, Centre for Free Expression, Toronto Metropolitan University

"Wells does a good job of illustrating how the new censorship consensus has brought left and right together in a push to suppress or eliminate voices and volumes they deem dangerous, immoral, or otherwise unsavoury . . . These self-appointed protectors of morality and intellectual curiosity on both sides of the political spectrum have eroded the liberal ideal of free expression and ushered in a new era of censorship by another name. By calling it out for what it is, Wells does a valuable service."
-Steven W. Beattie, That Shakespearean Rag

Praise for Norman Jewison: A Director's Life"Norman Jewison: A Director's Life [is] a fascinating story told with verve and authority."
-Toronto Star

"To read Norman Jewison: A Director's Life, is to wonder why this most consequential of directors wasn't better known. A big thanks to Ira Wells for giving biography treatment to a major Hollywood creator who strangely never became a legend."
-Forbes


"Ira Wells makes the persuasive case that Jewison deserves more fame than he has received, and along the way delivers a rollicking tale of Hollywood during Jewison's most active years and plenty of backstage trivia."
-Air Mail

"[A]n exhaustively researched look at the career of the country's most prolific, but least understood, filmmaker. The book is an ambitious, and frequently essential, endeavour."
-Globe and Mail

"A thoroughly enjoyable and detailed look at a memorable life in film."
-Library Journal