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Burning the Books

A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge

Richard Ovenden

Belknap Press, 2020

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The Nazis who burned books near a Berlin university in 1933 claimed the volumes represented corruption and decadence. Such attacks have persisted throughout history, and still exist in different ways. The ancient world invented libraries to store and transmit knowledge, but today they’re under attack from people who reject knowledge and negate history. Attacks on knowledge – such as book-banning movements – signal an ongoing rejection of the ideals of democracy and an open society, explains author Richard Ovenden, director of Oxford University’s great Bodleian Libraries. He provides a passionate, historically intricate plea for the preservation of knowledge and the enduring importance of libraries.

Summary

Libraries and archives preserve knowledge and history.

In 1933, young men in Nazi uniforms hurled books they deemed decadent and morally corrupt into bonfires near a Berlin university while chanting “Heil Hitler.” Many of these books were by Jewish, Communist, or gay authors.

The Nazis conducted massive book burnings across Germany during the Third Reich, but similar attacks on books and libraries have happened through the ages. Attacks on libraries and on knowledge in the 2020s aren’t the same as the sacking of Ashurbanipal’s great Assyrian library in Nineveh in 612 BC or the gradual decimation of the Library of Alexandria. The 21st-century decline of libraries is due in part to a reduction in government funding as well as the impact of the digital age.

Libraries stabilize societies and cultures. Long before digitization, knowledge of how to preserve paper libraries and archives was widespread: Keep the temperature and humidity in the normal range, keep food and liquids far away, and avoid fire. Digital information is far less stable than information that people store on paper. And digitization has...

About the Author

Richard Ovenden, a Fellow of Balliol College, is the director of the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford.

Burning the Books

A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge

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Summary

Libraries and archives preserve knowledge and history.

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