Introduction

Summary

This is a book about censorship. Specifically, it is a history of the censorship of theatre in the United States in the twentieth century. It will explore how major attacks on theatre reflect correlative crises in the larger culture. In other words, it is my argument that attempts to censor performance erupt when the dominant culture construes its laws, rituals, and traditions to be in the process of significant change. Rarely does the collective mind of a community encountering such transformations embrace them as a natural, evolutionary process. Rather, it attempts to halt or reverse these shifts by reverting to the rituals or philosophy of a purer, Golden Age.

Such behavior is indicative of a conservative society, one whose energy is used to maintain its political, moral, and social infrastructure. This type of society resists economic innovation and the rapid reordering that accompany such transformations. Its teachers in its schools do not encourage originality or radically new ideas. Instead, they emphasize rote learning of established principles and theorems. Its ministers preach that the relationship between gods and humans is fixed, does not evolve, and is not open to interpretation. Salvation is obtained by strict adherence to established principles. Speculation and experimentation are apostasy and inevitably lead to the spiritual demise of individuals and the communities that support them.

The conservative community cannot tolerate untrammeled innovation and does not believe that the future holds the answer to its problems.