49 Comments
User's avatar
Shadow Rebbe's avatar

I'm 100% with knowing which books are banned (not fake banned books that are sold in target). You've done us a favor in collecting many into one place.

IMO, its worth considering that a book is banned bc it is considered dangerous- which means it has rhetorical power against the banning establishment. This means that there are not banned books that are just as subversive but might lack the rhetorical power . And there are banned books that have the power, but are complete bullshit. (Looking at the contradictory books here should be enough to make it clear that being banned has nothing to do with being true.)

So the forbidden knowledge might be forbidden lies. What are your thoughts on this? You mentioned only that the authors were true believers in their message (I think there's also miscalculation on reception and times a'changing involved.) But that's hardly a reason to make it true.

Shadow Rebbe's avatar

Another quick thought worth considering- these are banned books in the west. Rushdie and plenty others are banned in other places, and knowing what other people find offensive that we find benign is a significant insight too.

curious if you agree or disagree with that

chaotickgood's avatar

<< Anarchists had assassinated Tsar Nicholas II with similarly manufactured homemade explosives

1) It wasn't anarchists (it was communitarian socialists)

2) It wasn't Nicholas II (it was Alexander II)

Kulak's avatar

Corrected, thankyou for pointing out the typo

Eharding's avatar

Probably some of the most important banned books are those of physical therapy: seriously, try finding any book which overtly states the correct human posture (shoulders up and forward, tailbone up and back, chin up, looking down via T1, not C1) and purpose of the chin (as a resting point for stomach sleeping, which is the correct way to sleep -back sleeping causes flatback posture). Such books must have been written, particularly by the U.S. Army, Nazi Germany, the USSR, and the imperial Japanese -but where are they?

Kulak's avatar

Archive has a wide selection of books on posture from the 19th and early 20th century...

I know nothing of the subject but dig away

These are all the permanently online ones for download

https://archive.org/search?query=posture&and%5B%5D=lending%3A%22is_readable%22

Eharding's avatar

As I suspected (most of?) the old books, just like many PTs today, promote flatback or hyperextended posture, which is disastrous for the shoulders:

https://substack.com/profile/11976384-eharding/note/c-46737253

Grant Smith's avatar

I could tell you all about this as an army physical therapist. McGill's Back Mechanic, Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance, and Gift of Injury aren't exactly banned, but they aren't popular with military clinicians either. There are complex reasons why posture is dismissed by midwit clinicians. Tickled by this observation though when I just stopped by to say how great of a read unintended consequences is.

User's avatar
Comment deleted
Feb 17, 2025
Comment deleted
Eharding's avatar

Well that's the point; I couldn't find any. Some should exist from the WWII era, though I suspect they're censored from the obvious search engines. My insights were inspired by Robin McKenzie's Treat Your Own Back (though he is wrong on shoulder/head posture). Perhaps I should write this book myself (though I don't have any real training in this area, I probably could get up to speed on muscle names, etc., over a year of reading). My suggestion would be to ask around as many qualified people as you can in regards to the true purpose of the chin; some (maybe a tenth) will probably give it to you.

Madame Z's avatar

I'm in Canada and I intend to read the Turner Diaries and White Resistance Manual. I make this clear and I don't care who may know. Revolt against the modern world

Sheev Callahan's avatar

Someone should train a chat gpt instance on all of these, banned search engine

Kulak's avatar

Love unz, Big inspiration.

Haven't read that one though thanks for the tip!

Jim Marlowe's avatar

Two questions: (1) Who else hesitated even for a moment before "liking"? I imagine an NSA / AI-curated struggle session where I'm asked to account for every SS like. Then I realize no one cares, and even if someone did, they'll screw it up so badly they won't actually get their facts straight. (2) why do we have so much free time to read to the end?

Jonathon's avatar

Erectus Walks Among Us by Richard D Fuerle

Opium for the Masses by Jim Hogshire

Anything published by the awesome Loompanics Unlimited.

Virg's avatar

A few years ago I was downsizing and this involved donating, selling on ebay, or just throwing away 1,000 or more books. I was moving to a smaller house and I still have way too many books. I kept the two volume Jefferson Davis Rise and Fall work in hardcover. It is actually a pretty good read. You could add an entire section to your banned book list just on Southern writers and anything that suggests factors other than slavery played a role in the War of the Rebellion. Even if they aren't banned, you can't find them. No one knows who John C. Calhoun (I still think his doctrine of nullification is the best way for a state to refuse to accept all federal laws) or William Gillmore Simms, who was better than Nathaniel Hawthorne, were.

Also, the David Irving books, which are the best books I ever read on Hitler, didn't make the my cut, but not because they were about Hitler or because they were written by Irving. I was going to sell them on EBay, but I wasn't allowed to. His name or anything about Hitler must be on their "do not sell list."

Great article. Thanks.

Chef Roi's avatar

Could you link your list for me?

Gruffydd's avatar

You should read Lolita, it’s excellent. Nabokov writes very beautifully.

Michael B. Morgan's avatar

Well, kudos. This is a deep article and calls for a change of pov on media, books and everything around information and pop culture. Definitely to be read several times to dig into all the insights you give.

Mark's avatar

David Irving is without equal in his meticulous research and verification from primary sources.

Sheila E's avatar

The whole Epstein thing was so stupid that I can't help but think Ghislaine orchestrated it to screw Israel for killing her father.

DerWaldgang's avatar

probably the best post I read on substack so far. This is really good stuff, thanks a lot!

Skeptical Faith's avatar

Just came across another prohibitively expensive “non-banned” book that I don’t remember seeing on your ‘list’. Bill Barr’s father gave JeffreyE his first job as an unqualified teacher. He also wrote a SciFi novel that aligned with JE’s future career.

Link to book on Amazon $1600 hardback, $250 pb

https://x.com/ladyfaceiii/status/1747831145520153016?s=46&t=KX-JZRxpoufEoMDdJqqiew

Space Relations - Donald Barr