Hey there! I'm so happy to announce the release of Episode 1! While most episodes are going to focus on specific books, the first two episodes are going to be on the history of obscenity in the U.S., primarily. I felt that it would be a good idea to go over the ways our understanding of obscenity has changed in the last few hundred years and how our modern conception of it affects much of our everyday lives in ways we might not realize.

This first episode covers the main obscenity cases brought to court up until the 1970s. The cases (and laws) BRIEFLY covered are:

-Regina v. Hicklin (1868)

-Comstock Act (1873)

-United States v. One Book Entitled "Ulysses" (1933)

-Commonwealth v. Gordon (1949)

-Butler v. State of Michigan (1957)

-Roth v. United States (1957)

-Attorney General v. The Book Named "Tropic of Cancer" (1962)

-Jacoblellis v. Ohio (1964)

-Ginzburg v. United States (1965)

-A Book Named "John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure" v. Attorney General of Massachusetts (1966)

-Attorney General v. A Book Named "Naked Lunch" (1966)

-Stanley v. Georgia (1969)

-Miller v. California (1973)

Sources:

-"The Reinvention of Obscenity: Sex, Lies, and Tabloids in Early Modern France" by Joan DeJean

-"Carving a Literary Exception: The Obscenity Standard and 'Ulysses'" by Marisa Anne Pagnattaro

-"Encyclopedia of Censorship" by Jonathon Green & Nicholas J. Karolides

-"The United States of America v. One Book Entitled 'Ulysses' by James Joyce: Documents and Commentary" by Michael Moscato

-"XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography" by Wendy McElroy