📌 List of the 381 books pulled from the Naval Academy's shelves

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Welcome to How to Resist, a newsletter that shares acts of nonviolent resistance, mutual aid, and community building for ordinary folks.

I hope this inspires new ideas and helps you discover ways to engage that are right for you. If you like this content, act on it! Find something today that speaks to you and make it happen! In the words of Anne Frank, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

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“A word to the unwise.
Torch every book.
Char every page.
Burn every word to ash.
Ideas are incombustible.
And therein lies your real fear.”

- Ellen Hopkins

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What’s this all about??

At the end of March, the New York Times reported leaked information (now under investigation) from an anonymous defense official that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth would order the U.S. Naval Academy to comply with Trump’s executive order to end “radical indoctrination” in kindergarten through 12th-grade. Even though the Naval Academy is a college, not a K-12 institution, Hegseth, citing the executive order, ordered the removal of all books relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion from the Naval Academy’s Nimitz Library.

This past week, the list of 900 books under review was whittled down to 381 titles, now in the process of being removed from the shelves.

The New York Times has shared the list, and honestly… it’s a banger. If you ever wanted to create your own personal resistance library, this list would be the place to start— race, discrimination, the history of resistance, white supremacy, gender and sexuality, race relations, Black history, philosophy, civil rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, fiction, nonfiction….

This list is so good that I have to ask myself if the librarian who was ultimately forced to choose these books did so to send us a message: This is what they don’t want you to know.¹²

Knowledge is power

Get the full list here:

https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/b9f07d9ade92f6f0/fcc8f9ac-full.pdf

Friendly reminder

Use your local libraries! Checking out these titles gives the library circulation statistics which can be used to make an argument for keeping these titles on the shelves!

If you do want to purchase, check out your local independent bookseller. For folks with limited mobility or no local bookstore, check out bookshop.org. Their ‘find a book store’ feature can connect you to independent booksellers anywhere in the country.

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References

Ismay, J., & Selig, K. (2025, March 29). Naval Academy Takes Steps to End Diversity Policies in Books and Admissions. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/28/us/politics/naval-academy-diversity-affirmative-action.html

Ismay, J. (2025, April 4). These Are the 381 Books Removed From the Naval Academy Library. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/us/politics/naval-academy-dei-books-removed.html

The New York Times (2025, April 4). Read the Naval Academy’s list of removed books. The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/04/04/us/250404-list-of-removed-books-from-nimitz-library.html

Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling. (2025, January 29). The White House. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling/

1. There is no evidence of this, and likely wishful thinking on my part, but the message is the same either way. This list effectively contains what the administration thinks are ideas and stories that are a threat to itself, its values, and its policies.

2. Welp. My librarian fantasy was wrong. New reporting by the NYT, "Political appointees in the Department of the Navy’s leadership decided which books to remove." [...] “Initially, officials searched the Nimitz Library catalog, using keyword searches, to identify books that required further review,” Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, a Navy spokesman, said in a statement on Friday. “Approximately 900 books were identified during the preliminary search. Departmental officials then closely examined the preliminary list to determine which books required removal to comply with directives outlined in executive orders issued by the president.” Books that remain on the shelves include: Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, The Camp of the Saitns by Jean Raspail, and the Bell Curve by Hernstein and Murray. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/us/politics/naval-academy-banned-books.html