Banned books, shocking art & the birth of the culture wars

The American culture wars originated in the 1974 Kanawha County textbook controversy, which established a template for using manufactured parental grievance to capture local school boards and regulatory bodies. Cultural historian Isaac Butler traces how figures like Donald Wildman and the American Family Association weaponized public outrage against transgressive art—such as Andres Serrano’s *Piss Christ* and the work of Robert Mapplethorpe—to systematically erode federal arts funding. These campaigns relied on the selective, out-of-context misrepresentation of creative works to mobilize political pressure. This playbook continues to shape contemporary conflicts, as seen in current legislative efforts to restrict school curricula and marginalize LGBTQ+ voices. Ultimately, the religious right’s strategic use of the power of the purse to enforce ideological conformity remains a persistent, asymmetric threat to free expression in American public life.