There’s a Simple Reason That Demands to “Ban” Books Like Maus Are Soaring

A Tennessee school board recently voted to pull the Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic novel Maus and its cat-and-mouse retelling of the Holocaust from the school curriculum. The school board members cited violence, nudity (in humanoid mouse caricatures), and profanity as the reasons. One member, Tony Allman, said: “It shows people hanging. It shows them killing kids. Why does the educational system promote this kind of stuff?”

The controversy this attracted seems symptomatic of a broader moment when certain parents and school boards feel emboldened to remove materials deemed offensive, especially when they concern history and...