The Naval Academy is known for canceling anyone for planning to explore the book ban, according to critics, and for doing so,” The Naval Academy is becoming known not only for banning publications, but also for doing so,” he said.
A controversial decision by the U.S. Naval Academy to reduce 400 books that advocate “diversity, collateral, and inclusion” from its collection has repercussions, as an analyst on Stoicism had his lecture it canceled because he was scheduled to condemn the decision.
Ryan Holiday, who owns The Painted Porch Bookshop in Texas and is a dedicated Stoic, has given a lesson on the virtues of beliefs to middle school students for the past four years, but his April 14 talk on the topic of knowledge was just canceled because he had declined to alter his speech.
I was called about an hour before my talk was scheduled to begin, and I was told,” Would I refrain from making any mention of the recent removal of 381 supposedly contentious books from the Nimitz library on campus?” In an April 19 New York Times op-ed, Holiday wrote that my presentations had been sent up the chain of command at the university, which was now, as it was explained, concerned about violence if my speech flouted [President Trump’s professional order banning DEI]
My presentation and a prepared statement before the Navy sports team, with whom my books on Nihilism are well-known, were canceled when I declined.
The academy “made a schedule change that aligns with its mission of preparing midshipmen for careers of service [as ] an apolitical institution,” according to a campus spokesperson for the Times.
Following an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in January to end all DEI regulations and practices in federal agencies, academy officials conducted an initial review of the library in late March and marked up approximately 900 books for further analysis, as The College Fix previously reported. In the end, officials decided to remove nearly 400 people.
The U.S. Navy has released a list of all the books that have been removed. The list also includes John Money’s” Man & Woman, Boy & Girl: Gender identity from conception to maturity,”” Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man,” by Emmanuel Acho,” American Hate: Survivors Speak Out,” edited by Arjun Singh Sethi, and” How to be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi.
Holiday claimed that the academy is making significant errors in his Times article.
Even though” Hitler’s” Mein Kampf” was not one of the books that was taken from the Naval Academy library, it ought to be accessible to historians and students of history. However, he wrote,” This makes the removal of Maya Angelou’s” I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” inexplicable.
We are talking about not the writings of external enemies here, he continued, but also, in some cases, art, serious scholarship, and legitimate criticism of America’s past.” Whatever one thinks of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” he continued.
One of the removed books is about Black soldiers fighting in World War II, another is about how the victims of the Holocaust are depicted, and another is a Kafka reimagining called” The Last White Man.” No one at any public institution should have to face losing their jobs for backtracking on such blatant overreach, let alone those tasked with protecting our freedom. Yet here we are.
Since then, an online video of his full speech has been made available.
The Navy Bans This Is The Stoicism Talk
At the U.S. Naval Academy photo, by Ryan Holiday twitter.com/XqWiWE85cF
— Daily Stoic ( @dailystoic ) April 23, 2025
Holiday also provided a copy of the speech’s schedule to the Free Press. The book removals reference included:
We should consider what Stockdale would think about the news that nearly 400 books have been taken out of the Naval Academy library as of today. At first, I thought it was an April Fools ‘ joke. The notion that the country’s best and brightest stars are perceived as too fragile, too easily manipulable, and too susceptible to being exposed to works that don’t like or disagree with.
This goes against the very definition of higher education, which is to challenge, open doors, and make it possible to comprehend things. And being aware of something is not the same as liking, appreciating, or embracing it. Because when people say you shouldn’t be able to read something or that you shouldn’t be able to think critically, those ideas are the ones that intellectually curious people should pursue.
Read in a dangerous way. Read with curiosity. delve into new territory. Get outside the box and research everything, especially the viewpoints of those you disagree with. Steelman rather than a strawman. Instead of punishing, investigate. We must read like a spy in the enemy’s camp, Seneca said, to be exact.
Both of these decisions have drawn a lot of criticism.
The Naval Academy is known for canceling someone who plans to discuss the book ban, as well as for banning books. This is a tragic new low, according to PEN America’s website. The statement,” Books are not the enemy, ignorance is the enemy, and terminating a speaker in this manner violates the principles of freedom that higher education in the United States is meant to stand for, sends a disconcerting message to future military leaders about how to engage diverse viewpoints.
MORE: Race can be considered in admissions at the Naval Academy: judge can.
IMAGE CAPTURE AND CREDIT: Ryan Holiday is in the image / X screenshot.
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