I see a few people pointing out that the book wasn&#x27;t really banned, in the sense that it was not published as a direct result of government intervention. But is this really a meaningful distinction?<p>The book was prevented from being published in approximately the same way a book advocating communism would have been effectively banned from publication in the 1950s (via whisper campaigns, implied or explicit threats of blacklisting, etc).<p>edit: sometimes this is justifiable: for example, a book titled &#x27;Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong and Kim Jong Un: misunderstood heroes?&#x27; would probably also be effectively banned via social pressure.