Burning Books and Leveling Libraries

Book destruction has often been carried out by authoritarian regimes, but dictatorial governments are not the only perpetrators. Extremists - through terrorism, war, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and other forms of mass violence - are also responsible for widespread cultural destruction, as Knuth demo [...]
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Book destruction has often been carried out by authoritarian regimes, but dictatorial governments are not the only perpetrators. Extremists - through terrorism, war, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and other forms of mass violence - are also responsible for widespread cultural destruction, as Knuth demonstrates in this new book. Whether the product of passion or of a cool-headed decision to use ideas to rationalise excess, the decimation of the world's libraries has occurred throughout the 20th century, and there is no end in sight. Cultural destruction is, therefore, of increasing concern to the library community, educators, human rights and civil rights activists, and concerned citizens. Part I of the work is devoted to struggles by extremists over voice and power at the local level; in these, destruction of books and libraries was employed as a tactic of political or ethnic protest. Part II discusses the aftermath of power struggles in Germany, Afghanistan, and Cambodia: the winners were utopians who purged libraries in efforts to purify their societies and maintain power. Part III examines the fate of libraries when there is war and power vacuum.The book concludes with a discussion of the events in Iraq in 2003, and the degree of responsibility of American war strategists for the widespread pillaging that ensued after the toppling of Saddam Hussein.