Big other: The campaign against The Camp of the Saints

Jeff Bezos is the world’s biggest bookseller. You can buy anything on Amazon: Hitler’s Mein Kampf, the polemics of Lenin and Mao, the poetry of Amanda Gorman. Amazon sells and ships independently published editions of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (5-star readers’ rating) and 100%-cotton “I heart The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” T-shirts (“Great for birthdays, Christmas, Hanukkah, Valentine’s Day, anniversaries, puppy, a lover, partner, daughter, or even a pet poodle”). For a few days in mid-April, however, you could not buy the new translation of Jean Raspail’s 1973 novel The Camp of the Saints.

On April 17, Amazon notified the publisher, Ethan Rundell of Vauban Books, that it had withdrawn the paperback edition from sale as an “Offensive Product.” Since the publication of Vauban’s edition in July 2025, Amazon has sold about 20,000 copies of the paperback. Amazon’s action came, Rundell noted, a day after New York