Foundations of Intellectual Freedom. Emily J. M. Knox. Chicago: ALA Neal-Schumann, 2023. 144 p. Paper, $54.99 (978-0-8389-3783-9).

Abstract

Foundations of Intellectual Freedom is an introduction to the concept of intellectual freedom, encompassing its history and intersections with concepts including freedom of expression, censorship, privacy, and copyright. The book follows the outline of the eight-week course Intellectual Freedom and Censorship, taught by author Emily J. M. Knox at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While this text is an excellent accompaniment to that course, it will also be useful for any information professional wanting to develop a foundational understanding of information freedom and recent conversations in the field. In addition to the discussion within each chapter, each chapter ends with an annotated bibliography of recent or important related works a reader may want to review. The titles in the annotated bibliography come at the discussion from a variety of angles and viewpoints. Each chapter also includes a bibliography of cited references. While Knox notes that the focus of the text is intellectual freedom in the context of the United States, she also includes information about internationally focused organizations. She notes that the conversation about intellectual freedom at the time of publication is influenced by the realities of an ongoing pandemic, the insurrection of January 6, 2021, and an increasing number of book challenges.