Blog Post 2

Book Burning - What is it?

Book burning is the ritual of destroying books through fire. Book burning is often conducted in a public context, and includes an element of censorship. Book Burning can usually be attributed to a cultural, religious or political opposition to the material included in the book.

This is a photograph of the book burning in Opera Square, Berlin, Germany, 10 May 1933
 
Censorship of books - What is it?

Censorship of books is the act of changing, suppressing or prohibiting writings which are considered to be obscene, blasphemous or politically unacceptable. Many books throughout history and in current times are banned or suppressed on the basis of sexual, religious, political and social grounds. The banning and suppression of books can vary from country to country, due to the varying social expectations of each country.

Book Burning History – Selective Timeline

There have been many reasons throughout history for the reasoning of this act, majority appear to be the reaction to a social conflict where strife has led to both sides to commit acts of violence against one another, and this has been accompanied by the destruction of books that relate to the opposite party having valued. Below is a list of events that I have selected showing book burning, in history.

525 B.C.E       The Egyptian libraries are destroyed by the Persians

213 B.C.E       The unifier of China decrees the annihilation of all writings.

12 B.C.E         Alexandria is burned. This is the date on which Caesar is said to have

destroyed the Great Library.

57 C.E             The books of Ephesus are destroyed

5^th Century

554                  The Emperor Yuan burns his library

1258                Baghdad’s thirty-six libraries are destroyed by the Mongols.

1309                The Jewish libraries of Paris are burned

1529                All Aztec books in Mexico are destroyed

1841                The Library of Congress is burned by the British

1933                The Nazis burn books in Berlin, followed by several other sites

1981                The Jaffna Library in Sri Lanka is burned

2003                Fire, pillage and simple destruction claim almost all of the Iraqi libraries

following the American ‘libervasion’.

Reflection of research:

For this blog post I used a variety of resources to obtain the information in this post, including books, websites and images. I also used general search enquiries to get me started on what information I could focus on, and to find alternate search terms such as biblioclasm, libricide and Nazi Book Fires. 

After finding information using general search techniques I then further clarified information by finding and using reputable sources. I used published books and online reference material, from both my public library and Swinburne Library Databases. I also found the website for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum which provided information and was used to validate the photograph for this post.

I am finding this to be a very interesting topic, with so much information being discovered. I am trying to keep to my research brief and focus on the book burning and censorship in general throughout history.

References:

Censorship 2012, Encyclopaedia Brittanica Online, viewed 21 March 2012, <http://www.britannica.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/EBchecked/topic/101977/censorship>.

MccGwire, S 1999, Censorship : changing attitudes 1900-2000, Wayland Publishers, Sussex.

Knuth, R 2006, Burning books and levelling libraries : extremist violence and cultural destruction, Praeger Publishers, Westport.

Polastron, LX 2007, Books on fire : the tumultuous story of the world’s great libraries, Thames & Hudson, London. 

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 2011, Book burning, Holocaust Encyclopedia, viewed 21 March 2012, <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/?ModuleId=10005143>.