Forbidden Bookshelf: Is Soft Censorship Worse than a Hard One?

in #history7 years ago (edited)

We are living in a democracy, aren’t we? Well, that depend what you consider a “democracy”. Terms can be extremely deceitful. And I would argue that Orwell’s vision of society is far closer to contemporary reality than the textbook notion of democracy. Ladies and Steemers, I would like to introduce you to a man who can tell you more on that – professor Mark Crispin Miller:

Miller is a professor of media studies at NYU and an accomplished author of several books, from Boxed In: The Culture of TV (1988) and Seeing Through Movies (1990) to his more recent works on politics, including The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder and Fooled Again: The Real Case for Electoral Reform. He has also written many articles for newspapers and journals, including four op-eds in the New York Times, as well as many pieces in the Nation, the New Republic, and the New York Review of Books, and articles for Harper’s, the Atlantic, Mother Jones, Esquire, and the Wall Street Journal. Through his blog, News from Underground, he is also an influential presence on the web.


Government and its Agencies have many ways to conceal unwanted information. For example, this book by Frederick Lewis Allen, The Lords of Creation – The History of America’s 1 Percent (1935) – can be found as a new printed copy on Amazon, and it costs measly $2,498! What could be so expensive? It can’t be the paper. Nor print. Contents, maybe? What is inside? Well, it is a fascinating story of bankers, railroad tycoons, steel magnates, speculators, scoundrels, and robber barons. It is a tale of innovation and shocking exploitation—and a sobering reminder that history can indeed repeat itself. Here's a short overview:

“Frederick Lewis Allen’s insightful financial history of the United States—from the late 1800s through the stock market collapse of 1929—remains a seminal work on what brought on America’s worst economic disaster: the Great Depression. In the decades following the Civil War, America entered an era of unprecedented corporate expansion, with ultimate financial power in the hands of a few wealthy industrialists who exploited the capitalist system for everything it was worth. The Rockefellers, Fords, Morgans, and Vanderbilts were the “lords of creation” who, along with like-minded magnates, controlled the economic destiny of the country, unrestrained by regulations or moral imperatives. Through a combination of foresight, ingenuity, ruthlessness, and greed, America’s giants of industry remolded the US economy in their own preferred image. In so doing, they established their absolute power and authority, ensuring that they—and they alone—would control the means of production, transportation, energy, and commerce—thereby setting the stage for the most devastating global financial collapse in history.”


Or, how about this book: The Phoenix Program – America's Use of Terror in Vietnam by Douglas Valentine. This is A shocking exposé of the covert CIA program of widespread torture, rape, and murder of civilians during America’s war in Vietnam. CIA secretly initiated a sweeping program of kidnap, torture, and assassination devised to destabilize the infrastructure of the National Liberation Front (NLF) of South Vietnam, commonly known as the “Viet Cong.” The victims of the Phoenix Program were Vietnamese civilians, male and female, suspected of harboring information about the enemy—though many on the blacklist were targeted by corrupt South Vietnamese security personnel looking to extort money or remove a rival. Between 1965 and 1972, more than eighty thousand noncombatants were “neutralized,” as men and women alike were subjected to extended imprisonment without trial, horrific torture, brutal rape, and in many cases execution, all under the watchful eyes of US government agencies.

The ebook edition includes “The Phoenix Has Landed,” a new introduction that addresses the “Phoenix-style network” that constitutes America’s internal security apparatus today. Residents on American soil are routinely targeted under the guise of protecting us from terrorism—which is why, more than ever, people need to understand what Phoenix is all about.

By the way, the author, douglas Valentine, has just published a new book that deserves global attention:



Professor Crispin Miller took upon himself a mission to make these books available to everyone. With the help of Open Road Media, he launched Forbidden Bookshelf project, where you can find all those extremely interesting documents that sheds light on a hidden, or “soft censored” American history. Here are a few more interesting titles:

  • Blowback – America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Destructive Impact on Our Domestic and Foreign Policy, by Christopher Simpson. The true story of how US intelligence organizations employed Nazi war criminals in clandestine warfare and propaganda against the USSR, anticolonial revolutionaries, and progressive movements worldwide that were claimed to be Soviet pawns; includes a new, previously suppressed introduction by the author on the CIA’s declassification of Nazi-related records.

  • Du Pont Dynasty, by Gerard Colby. Their name is everywhere. America’s wealthiest industrial family by far and a vast financial power, the Du Ponts, from their mansions in northern Delaware’s “Chateau Country,” have long been leaders in the relentless drive to turn the United States into a plutocracy.

  • Science of Coercion – Communication Research & Psychological Warfare, 1945–1960, by Christopher Simpson. A provocative and eye-opening study of the essential role the US military and the Central Intelligence Agency played in the advancement of communication studies during the Cold War era.

  • Inside Job – The Looting of America's Savings and Loans, by Stephen Pizzo, Mary Fricker, Paul Muolo. A fast-paced and gripping account of one of history’s most infamous financial disasters

  • Dallas '63 – The First Deep State Revolt Against the White House, by Peter Scott. Beneath the orderly façade of the American government lies a complex network, only partly structural, linking Wall Street influence, corrupt bureaucracy, and the military-industrial complex. Here lies the true power of the American empire: This behind-the-scenes web is unelected, unaccountable, and immune to popular resistance. Peter Dale Scott calls this entity the deep state, and he has made it his life’s work to write the history of those who manipulate our government from the shadows. Since the aftermath of World War II, the deep state’s power has grown unchecked, and nowhere has it been more apparent than at sun-dappled Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963.

  • Votescam – The Stealing of America, by James M. Collier, Kenneth F. Collier. This book is the culmination of a 25-year investigation into computerized vote fraud in the United States. Journalists James and Kenneth Collier pose the question, “Why can’t we vote the bastards out?” Their answer: “Because we didn’t even vote the bastards in.”

And here you can see professor Crispin Miller’s inteview with Abby Martin on “Breaking the Set”:




If you are searching for the truth, here is another great book you won’t find in mainstream bookstores: The Last Revolution by Ljubodrag Simonovic




Thank you for reading this post.

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Reshared @phibetaiota
This is important open confirmation to share.
Electoral Reform is the single most Unifying American Principle
WE ALL Should openly share. The US is in a DeFacto Soft Coup!
NOW is the most important time for an Electoral Reform Act.
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Forbidden Things, That I have known of @lighteye

That we can discuss in steeming fruit department :)

Good post, good images, excellent insight into an, almost, invisible problem.

Thank You very much, for your support, coldmonkey.