“I want to be intelligent, even if I do live in Boston.”
—an anonymous Bostonian, 1929
In this spectacular romp through the Puritan City, Neil Miller relates the scintillating story of how a powerful band of Brahmin moral crusaders helped make Boston the most straitlaced city in America, forever linked with the infamous catchphrase “Banned in Boston.”
Bankrolled by society’s upper crust, the New England Watch and Ward Society acted as a quasi-vigilante police force and notorious literary censor for over eighty years. Often going over the heads of local authorities, it orchestrated the mass censorship of books and plays, raided gambling dens and brothels, and utilized spies to entrap prostitutes and their patrons.
Miller deftly traces the growth of the Watch and Ward, from its formation in 1878 to its waning days in the 1950s. During its heyday, the society and its imitators banished modern classics by Hemingway, Faulkner, and Sinclair Lewis and went to war with publishing and literary giants such as Alfred A. Knopf and The Atlantic Monthly. To the chagrin of the Watch and Ward, some writers rode the national wave of publicity that accompanied the banning of their books. Upton Sinclair declared staunchly, “I would rather be banned in Boston than read anywhere else because when you are banned in Boston, you are read everywhere else.” Others faced extinction or tried to barter their way onto bookshelves, like Walt Whitman, who hesitantly removed lines from Leaves of Grass under the watchful eye of the Watch and Ward. As the Great Depression unfolded, the society shifted its focus from bookstores to burlesque, successfully shuttering the Old Howard, the city’s legendary theater that attracted patrons from T. S. Eliot to John F. Kennedy.
Banned in Boston is a lively history and, despite Boston’s “liberal” reputation today, a cautionary tale of the dangers caused by moral crusaders of all stripes.
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Review
“…Miller’s book is rich with colorful anecdotes.”—Journal of American History
“This is a superb example of breathtaking research, presented in a style that will appeal to a broad audience…Rather than delivering a detailed history of the Watch and Ward, he offers up a series of vignettes that are historically accurate yet thoroughly entertaining in their telling. This is social history at its finest, and Miller should be applauded for resurrecting the history of this influential group that had a national reputation.”—Choice Reviews
"The fight for artistic freedom in America begins in Boston, and Miller gives us a front-row seat."--Christopher M. Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and author of From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act
"Miller relates a wealth of historical anecdotes...[they] left no shortage of entertaining censorship initiatives for Miller to recall here for readers' enjoyment."--Booklist
"As a catchphrase, 'banned in Boston' made history; as an imprimatur it sold books." --Chronicle Review
“A lively history of the notorious Watch and Ward Society, which for a century sought to establish decency by suppressing ‘obscene’ works by authors such as Boccaccio, Whitman, Dreiser, Faulkner, and Mencken. This is a must read for anyone interested in understanding how censorship ultimately destroys not indecency, but freedom.”—Geoffrey R. Stone, author of Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism
“I read this book with one eye over my shoulder, fully expecting the Watch and Ward police to burst in and confiscate it for being too provocative! But it would have been worth it. Neil Miller has given us everything we could ask for in an enjoyable history—a revealing subject, well-drawn characters, and a colorful portrait of another era, all wrapped in a fast-paced, easy-to-read story. Banned in Boston is a Boston gem.”—Stephen Puleo, author of A City So Grand, The Boston Italians, and Dark Tide
“Neil Miller has created a fascinating and often funny history of a time when censors ruled. The fight for artistic freedom in America begins in Boston, and Miller gives us a front-row seat.”—Christopher M. Finan, president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and author of From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America
"As a catchphrase, "banned in Boston" made history; as an imprimatur it sold books. Now telling its story in rollicking fashion is Banned in Boston: The Watch and Ward Society's Crusade Against Books, Burlesque, and the Social Evil (Beacon Press), by Neil Miller..."- Chronicle Review
“…Miller relates a wealth of historical anecdotes regarding the likes of H. L. Mencken, Upton Sinclair, and Walt Whitman …the society moved on to other matters of perceived public good, but it left no shortage of entertaining censorship initiatives for Miller to recall here for readers’ enjoyment.”-Booklist
“Miller, who knew almost nothing about the history of book banning in Boston before beginning research for his book, was presented with the idea for this latest project by his publishers at Beacon Press after they discovered that their office was located in the old New England Watch and Ward Society headquarters. Ironically enough, the building is now a hub of dissemination of many of the types of literature that the society once sought to ban, he said.”-The Tufts Daily
“A fast-paced, highly readable account of a forgotten…chapter in Boston’s history.”
-PhiloBiblos
“Mr. Miller has provided a service by being the first to document the entire history of the notorious Watch and Ward Society, from its formation in 1878 to its last, dying gasps in the 1950s. The story is fascinating and often funny, and the author (who teaches journalism at Tufts University) tells it with clarity and perception.”- The Washington Times
“Banned in Boston is Neil Miller’s entertaining and informative account of the Society’s activities from its founding through its heyday in the early 1960s…Banned in Boston provides a balanced look at a local movement that represented a widespread – and continuing – tension within American society.”- Suite 101
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Customer Reviews
Banned in Boston, by Tufts University journalism instructor Neil Miller, is a decades-long survey of the Watch and Ward Society's campaign to rid Boston of perceived social evils, while Island of Vice, by contrarian historian Richard Zacks, focuses on Theodore Roosevelt's two-year effort to root out corruption as New York City Police Commissioner.
Zacks' book has a release date of March 13, 2012; Miller's book was published in 2010 but released in paperback last fall. Extensive bibliographic details reflecting the requisite heavy research are included in both books.
My review of Banned in Boston follows, along with a cross reference to Island of Vice. In the interest of fair reporting, I must admit that I read Banned in Boston first. I enjoyed it. Then I read Island of Vice. And I couldn't put it down.
Neil Miller offers an enjoyable if scholarly survey of the New England Watch and Ward Society's often successful efforts to ban offensive books, burlesque, and of course my favorite euphemism, "the Social Evil," a.k.a. prostitution. Miller charts the organization's 1878 founding (as the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice) through its heyday in the censorship-happy 1920s to its waning by the mid-20th century.
Like so many modern day hypocrites, the proud members of the W&W were not above a little closeted hanky-panky themselves. Some, like upstanding Boston Brahmin and lifelong Watch and Ward benefactor Godfrey L. Cabot, were admitted fetishists. (Personal letters detail urination fantasies.) Others, like Watch and Ward agent John Tait Slaymaker, subjected themselves to countless nudie shows, all in the line of duty. Even Watch and Ward Secretary J. Frank Chase checked into a hotel room under an assumed name and with a woman other than his wife. His defense? "[They] asked me to ascertain the character of a certain business of the hotel." Alrightythen.
Miller succeeds in capturing the vigilante mentality of these upper crust Boston Brahmins, described disparingly as a junior varsity vice squad. The image of crusading Untouchables is clear, yet these crusaders took it too far. Assistant district attorney Thomas Lavelle stated in the 1916 defense of an alleged prostitute that, "Watch and Ward Society agents are in the business of making crime." Indeed, a conflict of interest was all too real. Period law awarded half the fines imposed in cases of bookstores caught selling "illegal" books to the complainants (the Watch and Ward Society)! Therefore, and despite the moral high ground espoused in its annual reports, the society always had a financial incentive to find crime.
Anyone with an interest in social justice or censorship--witness the paperback's timed release for ALA Banned Books Week--will benefit from this history, as will Bostonites proud of their city's otherwise well-acclaimed intelligence. As the Boston Globe presciently observed in 1890, "People who give their whole minds to discovering immodesty are seldom unsuccessful." Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
[The reviewer was provided with complimentary copies of both books from different publishers.]
Banned in Boston: The Watch and Ward Society's Crusade against Books, Burlesque, and the Social Evil
Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York
Sadly, by choosing to focus on the one aspect, Miller makes the story less interesting than it could be. As other books like "Always Something Doing" have shown, the fight between various groups to out do one another in the suppression of vice led to the ridiculous turf wars and banning of many American classics, all of which resulted in Boston being a laughing stock. The Watch & Ward society was a player and one which often took itself too seriously but its role was often very much in the background.
Sadly, this is a dull and often tedious book filled with stories that have been better told elsewhere. I would recommend either the previously mentioned "Always Something Doing," or the great bio of James Michael Curley, "The Rascal King," for better stories on the corruption in Boston.
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