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 stripes--through
terrorism, war, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and other forms of mass
violence--are also responsible for widespread cultural destruction,
as she demonstrates in this new book. Burning Books and Leveling
Libraries is structured in three parts. BLPart 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. BLPart 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. BLPart 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 ignoringits 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.
General
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