Burning Books - Hardcover

Bosmajian, Haig

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786422084 ISBN 13: 9780786422081

Publisher: McFarland Publishing, 2006

Synopsis

For over 2000 years, book burners have laid their torches to millions of books condemned as heretical, blasphemous, immoral, obscene, subversive or seditious. Books have been reduced to ashes in church yards, college yards, school furnaces, public squares and city streets. The goals of the book burners have been to extirpate history, to intimidate and stamp out opposition, to create solidarity, and to cleanse society of controversial ideas. Too often, book burning foreshadows violence against those who originated or shared the ideas. This work provides a detailed account of book burning worldwide over the past 2000 years. (Book burning is meant literally, not as a figurative reference to book banning.) The book burners are identified, along with the works they deliberately set aflame. An important aspect of this study is its examination of the metaphoric language that "justified" the destruction; books being burned were “tares,” “pestilence,” “plagues,” “cancers,” and “poison.” Such language is a central part to the control the burners hope to exercise over those who might otherwise read the books and become part of the exchange of ideas. Also considered is the primeval pull of the book burning ritual, which in its simplicity leads to the destruction of ideas and the uniformity of thought most often associated with totalitarian regimes.

About this title

About the Author:

Award winner Haig Bosmajian is professor emeritus in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington, Seattle. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

Review:

"comprehensive...a great resource...excellent...recommend[ed]"--C&RL News; "acquisition is an obligation all public and academic libraries must seriously consider"--Library Journal; "chilling accounts"--American Libraries.

About this edition

• Publisher: McFarland Publishing
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0786422084
• ISBN 13: 9780786422081
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 233