Killing the Scholars and Burning the Books in 210–213 BC (18th-century Chinese painting) When the burning is widespread and systematic, destruction of books and media can become a significant component of cultural genocide. In modern times, other forms of media, such as phonograph records, video tapes, and CDs have also been burned, shredded, or crushed. In other cases, such as the Nazi book burnings, copies of the destroyed books survive, but the instance of book burning becomes emblematic of a harsh and oppressive regime which is seeking to censor or silence some aspect of prevailing culture.īook burning can be an act of contempt for the book's contents or author, and the act is intended to draw wider public attention to this opinion.Īrt destruction is related to book burning, both because it might have similar cultural, religious, or political connotations, and because in various historical cases, books and artworks were destroyed at the same time. Examples include the burning of books and burying of scholars under China's Qin Dynasty (213–210 BCE), the obliteration of the Library of Baghdad (1258), the destruction of Aztec codices by Itzcoatl (1430s), the burning of Maya codices on the order of bishop Diego de Landa (1562), and the Burning of Jaffna Public Library in Sri Lanka (1981).
In some cases, the destroyed works are irreplaceable and their burning constitutes a severe loss to cultural heritage. The burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or political opposition to the materials in question. Thousands of books smoulder in a huge bonfire as Germans give the Nazi salute during the wave of book-burnings that spread throughout Germany.īook burning is the deliberate destruction by fire of books or other written materials, usually carried out in a public context.