Burning Books and Leveling Libraries: Extremist Violence and Cultural Destruction

(Hardback)

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Whether the product of passion or of a cool-headed decision to use ideas to rationalize excess, the decimation of the world's libraries occurred throughout the 20th century, and there is no end in sight. Cultural destruction is, therefore, of increasing concern. In her previous book Libricide, Rebecca Knuth focused on book destruction by authoritarian regimes: Nazis, Serbs in Bosnia, Iraqis in Kuwait, Maoists during the Cultural Revolution in China, and the Chinese Communists in Tibet. But authoritarian governments are not the only perpetrators. Extremists of all stripesthrough terrorism, war, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and other forms of mass violenceare also responsible for widespread cultural destruction, as she demonstrates in this new book. Burning Books and Leveling Libraries is structured in three parts. Part I is devoted to struggles by extremists over voice and power at the local level, where destruction of books and libraries is employed as a tactic of political or ethnic protest. Part II discusses the aftermath of power struggles in Germany, Afghanistan, and Cambodia, where 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 a resulting power vacuum. The book concludes with a discussion of the events in Iraq in 2003, and the responsibility of American war strategists for the widespread pillaging that ensued after the toppling of Saddam Hussein. This case poignantly demonstrates the ease with which an oppressed people, given the collapse of civil restraints, may claim freedom as license for anarchy, construing it as the right to prevail, while ignoring its implicit mandate of social responsibility. Using military might to enforce ideals (in this case democracy and freedom) is futile, Knuth argues, if insufficient consideration is given to humanitarian, security, and cultural concerns.

Reviews

Knuth has written a powerful, thought-provoking book to expand on her first book, Libricide (2003). She lays the groundwork by defining extremist behavior, destruction, and biblioclasm, in the historical and modern contexts. This book is divided into three parts. Each focuses on different aspects of power: at local levels, as part of totalitarian regimes, and as a result of grabs for power. Knuth examines the relative role of power and how biblioclasm is used as a means to gain attention, force beliefs, or hegemonize societies. The book presents in-depth analysis through a combination of actual cases, background information, and theory. Most eye-opening is the chapter on the invasion of Iraq and the irresponsible actions of the Bush administration, which resulted in the looting and destruction of centuries' worth of cultural and historical artifacts. Each chapter has significant bibliographic citations that reflect excellent research in the author's preparation for this book.Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. * Choice *
Burning Books and Leveling Libraries is an important study for political leaders around the world, for library association officials, for political scientists, and for all persons seriously interested in the preservation of the world's cultural, intellectual, and artistic heritage. * Journal of Information Ethics *
Written in academic style, the book is a thorough look at the topic of library destruction. This book would be an excellent discussion tool for those who are concerned about intellectual freedom. This is not a read for the faint of heart. This book sounds the clarion call to protect our libraries and our books in any way we possibly can. This is a must read for all professional librarians, museum curators and cultural center directors * Colorado Association of Libraries *
Drawing persuasively from history, political science, and social theory, Knuth creates a challenging and forceful framework for understanding violence against books and libraries. Knuth balances the rigor of her scholarship and the weight of her subject matter with an engaging, accessible style, creating a work deserving the attention of any educated reader interested in intellectual freedom or political extremism. * Oklahoma Librarian *
This carefully researched volume is a sobering investigation of how in one century's time the world has lost extraordinary amounts of recorded human heritage. While it is an excellent selection for any LIS collection, its astounding breadth makes it an ideal interdisciplinary reader for political science, history and sociology collections. Strongly recommended for academic library and larger public library collections. * Journal of Access Services *
[A] recommended addition for academic libraries that support LIS schools. Additionally, with its in-depth research and extensive resources this book is a good complement to history and sociology collections. * Reference & User Services Quarterly *
Readers of this lucidly written, excellently organized, and passionately argued book may never be able to view libraries the same way again; libraries, the author demonstrates, are not just information portals or storehouses of ideas, but something more dangerous and often feared: they are battlefields.Knuth has so succinctly summed up dozens of biblioclasm tragedies, so neatly and agonizingly explained how politics, human psychology, and the heft of history lead to such events, that it is hard to conceive that they will not happen again. If policy makers read this book, a must for all library schools and those concerned with the fate of humankind and their culture, then we may very well be spared the repeat of such destructive tragedies. * College and Research Libraries *
[A] scholarly study of nationalist, ethnic, religious, or political extremism taken to such lengths as to result in the wholesale destruction of libraries as an all-out assault upon cultural values the extremists despise. As Knuth shows, destruction of books goes hand in hand with destruction of people. Burning Books And Leveling Libraries especially focuses upon incidents of biblioclasm in the late 20th and earth 21st century. [K]nuth reveals that using military might alone to advocate and enforce ideals is futile when humanitarian, security, and cultural concerns are ignored. Deftly researched and bitingly exact in its portrayal of extremist psychology and its terrible consequences, Burning Books And Leveling Libraries is highly recommended, as is Knuth's previous study in the field, Libricide. * MBR: The Bookwatch *
[F]or as long as libraries seem worth building and maintaining, extremists will have a good material target, even if they are thwarted by the likes of Google in their aim to erase the cultural record. * Academia *
In Burning Books and Leveling Libraries: Extremist Violence and Cultural Destruction, Knuth documents how extremists of all persuasions have destroyed books and libraries. She gives examples where the destruction of books is used as a tactic of political or ethnic protest, or as a result of power struggles and war, and concludes with a discussion of the cultural destruction of Iraq in 2003. * American Libraries *
Knuth reports on the destruction of libraries and books by extremists around the world during the 20th century and investigates some of the complex motivations behind these violent acts. She first looks at the use of biblioclasm as a tactic of political or ethnic protest at the local level. Next, she discusses the purging of libraries in the aftermath of power struggles in Germany, Afghanistan, and Cambodia. The final three chapters consider the fate of libraries when war creates a power vacuum--with special attention paid to the looting of Iraq's cultural institutions in 2003. * Reference & Research Book News *

Author Bio

REBECCA KNUTH is Chair of the Library and Information Science Program at the University of Hawaii, where she is also Associate Professor.