Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge

by Richard Ovenden

Overview

Wolfson History Prize Finalist
A New Statesman Book of the Year
A Sunday Times Book of the Year

“If you care about books, and if you believe we must all stand up to the destruction of knowledge and cultural heritage, this is a brilliant read—both powerful and prescient.”—Elif Shafak

The director of the famed Bodleian Libraries at Oxford narrates the global history of the willful destruction—and surprising survival—of recorded knowledge over the past three millennia.

Libraries and archives have been attacked since ancient times but have been especially threatened in the modern era. Today the knowledge they safeguard faces purposeful destruction and willful neglect; deprived of funding, libraries are fighting for their very existence. Burning the Books recounts the history that brought us to this point.

Richard Ovenden describes the deliberate destruction of knowledge held in libraries and archives from ancient Alexandria to contemporary Sarajevo, from smashed Assyrian tablets in Iraq to the destroyed immigration documents of the UK Windrush generation. He examines both the motivations for these acts—political, religious, and cultural—and the broader themes that shape this history. He also looks at attempts to prevent and mitigate attacks on knowledge, exploring the efforts of librarians and archivists to preserve information, often risking their own lives in the process.

More than simply repositories for knowledge, libraries and archives inspire and inform citizens. In preserving notions of statehood recorded in such historical documents as the Declaration of Independence, libraries support the state itself. By preserving records of citizenship and records of the rights of citizens as enshrined in legal documents such as the Magna Carta and the decisions of the US Supreme Court, they support the rule of law. In Burning the Books, Ovenden takes a polemical stance on the social and political importance of the conservation and protection of knowledge, challenging governments in particular, but also society as a whole, to improve public policy and funding for these essential institutions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674241206
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	11/17/2020
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	856,610
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Richard Ovenden is Director of the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Balliol College. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2019, is a member of the American Philosophical Society, and serves as Treasurer of the Consortium of European Research Libraries and President of the Digital Preservation Coalition.

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

1 Cracked Clay Under the Mounds 17

2 A Pyre of Papyrus 29

3 When Books Were Dog Cheap 47

4 An Ark to Save Learning 65

5 Spoil of the Conqueror 79

6 How to Disobey Kafka 93

7 The Twice-Burned Library 107

8 The Paper Brigade 119

9 To Be Burned Unread 141

10 Sarajevo Mon Amour 153

11 Flames of Empire 169

12 An Obsession with Archives 183

13 The Digital Deluge 197

14 Paradise Lost? 217

15 Coda: Why We Will Always Need Libraries and Archives 225

Acknowledgements 235

Picture Credits 239

Notes 241

Bibliography 263

Index 291

Editorial Reviews

09/07/2020

Ovenden, director of the Bodleian Libraries of Oxford University, debuts with a wide-ranging and thought-provoking account of efforts to destroy, neglect, or conceal books, archives, private papers, government documents, and other records. Ovenden describes the May 10, 1933, burning of thousands of “un-German” books by pro-Nazi students in Berlin and attacks by German troops in WWI and WWII on the Louvain University library in Belgium, as well as the targeting of the Library of Congress by the British in the War of 1812 and the destruction of the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Serbs in 1992. Discussions of the burning of Lord Byron’s memoir and Philip Larkin’s diaries by their literary executors and loved ones feel somewhat tangential, but Ovenden’s account of the destruction and removal of government archives from Iraq during the Second Gulf War, thereby limiting access to crucial information on the modern history of the country, is eye-opening and alarming. Even more troublesome, according to Ovenden, are the vast quantities of information currently held at the whim of a few global tech giants. He stuffs the narrative with intriguing arcana, and counterbalances the grim rundown of dangers posed to cultural heritage with profiles of librarians and archivists working to opposite ends. The result is an engrossing and informative portrait of how important it is to preserve and protect knowledge. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Burning the Books at once provides a striking reminder of the necessity of such places for social well-being, along with a kind of love letter to some of the best librarians history has to offer…Ovenden’s volume is an unambiguous reminder of the risks specific individuals took to ensure the survival of written knowledge…Throughout Burning the Books, we are clearly in the hands of someone who has devoted his life to preserving the written word, and we can only hope that individuals like Ovenden will receive the necessary support in order to continue to resist ‘the long history of attacks on knowledge’ that he chronicles.

American Literary History - Daniel Diez Couch

From ancient Nineveh to medieval Glastonbury, from Sarajevo after World War II to the cloud, men and women have found ways to destroy books and documents—and to preserve them. This lively, richly detailed book by the keeper of one of the world’s greatest libraries evokes both the magic and the meaning of these records of destruction and preservation, and makes a powerful case for the signal importance of libraries in the digital age.

Anthony Grafton

Burning the Books is both timely and authoritative. The subject of archives and libraries is one of permanent importance in the understanding a nation has of itself, and touches not only high politics but also information technology and life-and-death drama. I can think of no one better qualified to write about it than Richard Ovenden, whose great knowledge and wide experience is expressed in a clear and lively style.

Philip Pullman

This isn’t about burning books at all, but saving them. This is a call to arms by the guardian of one of the greatest libraries in the world and the custodian of millions of books.

Christopher de Hamel

[Ovenden] is acutely aware of the many ways in which books and paper archives cease to exist: not only through deliberate destruction—acts of moral outrage, retribution, even efforts to literally erase history—but also simple neglect…Fortunately, he has devoted a great deal of time to thinking about these disasters and how to prevent them. His compelling thoughts are now gathered in the eminently readable (and provocatively titled) Burning the Books…Essential reading for anyone concerned with libraries and what Ovenden outlines as their role in ‘the support of democracy, the rule of law and open society.’

Wall Street Journal

‘Dangerous souvenirs’ is what Richard Ovenden calls the books salvaged by ex-monks under the nose of Henry VIII. Now as then, books need friends. This fascinating book will help to find them.

Alan Bennett

Vibrant societies build libraries; declining societies close them… It’s no longer necessary to burn a library; the same effect can be achieved through systematic use of the ‘delete’ key… Ovenden argues that only libraries can be trusted to preserve the inconvenient truths that lurk on the internet…A passionate and illuminating account of the obliteration of knowledge that has occurred over the past three millennia…This splendid book reveals how, in today's world of fake news and alternative facts, libraries stand defiant as guardians of truth.

The Times - Gerard DeGroot

Compelling…a book of great power and reach.

Edmund de Waal

The era of fake news and alternative facts reminds us that the burning of books is about much more than matches and accelerants; it is about power. Even as the digital world offers ways of sharing and preserving knowledge, it gives would-be biblioclasts fresh options for destruction, new instruments for erasure. Burning the Books arrives at a crucial juncture. With historical breadth, narrative focus, and the capacious sensibility of a keeper of books, Richard Ovenden catalogues the destruction of knowledge and memory—not only archiving the episodes, but offering schema for comprehending the losses and defending the stacks of the future.

Matthew Battles

Like an epic filmmaker, Richard Ovenden unfolds vivid scenes from three millennia of turbulent history and closes in to mount passionate arguments for the need to preserve the records of the past—and of the present. In the current changing landscape of knowledge and power, this urgent, lucid book calls out to us all to recognize and defend one of our most precious public goods—libraries and archives.

Marina Warner

Shows just how vulnerable archived knowledge is, from the pile of 28,000 clay tablets rescued for the British Museum from Ashurbanipal’s library, destroyed by conquerors of Nineveh in 612 BC, to the deletion of millions of photos from Flickr accounts in 2019.

The Telegraph - Christopher Howse

There could never be a more relevant time for the publication of Burning the Books: A History of the Deliberate Destruction of Knowledge. ‘Democratic institutions, the rule of law and open society are under attack. The truth itself is under attack,’ author Richard Ovenden predicts with chilling accuracy months before the invasion of the U.S. Capitol by rioters…It is an history of the disrespect shown to libraries throughout the ages, and a treatise on why we must strive to protect and preserve them…There is something for everyone who loves libraries in this book…Ovenden lists the crucial role libraries and archives have played throughout history and what is lost when they are destroyed.

Publishing Research Quarterly - Gretchen Webster

Ovenden writes with a sense of urgency. Libraries and archives are under assault today, he argues, and our complacency is leading to alarming levels of reduced resources for our ‘storehouses of knowledge.’…A call for renewed support for memory institutions, specifically increased funding for digital preservation projects…He joins other library directors at prestigious institutions who are working hard to combat the false idea that libraries and archives are irrelevant in the digital world.

College & Research Libraries - Jason Dyck

From arson to neglect, from state censorship to corporate digitization, Ovenden provides a sweeping tour of the vulnerabilities that affect whole libraries even more than the sum of their bookish parts.

Public Books - Leah Price

Present-day anxieties confer unwelcome relevance to Richard Ovenden’s Burning the Books…[He] emphasizes that attacks on books, archives and recorded information are the usual practice of authoritarian regimes. Control what people know and you control them; control the past and you control the future…Ovenden argues that libraries should be used to safeguard our digital data, so that the powerful don’t simply delete anything they don’t like or wish to repudiate.

Michael Dirda

[A] rich and meticulous 3,000 year history of knowledge and all the ways it may be preserved (or not)…Written at a time of huge political and economic strife, attempts to save the concept of the library itself, something it achieves not through polemic…but by telling stories…As Ovenden quietly notes, archives are central to social order, to the ordering of history, and to the expression of national and cultural identity.

The Observer - Rachel Cooke

The sound of a warning vibrates through this book…Takes a nightmare that haunts many of us—the notion of the past erased—and confirms that it is no fiction but rather a recurring reality. In the process, Ovenden stays true to his calling, reminding us that libraries and librarians are the keepers of humankind’s memories: without them, we don't know who we are.

The Guardian - Jonathan Freedland

A superb book…A history of destruction, not by accident, but by acts of erasure. The villains in the long history of malice toward knowledge include authoritarian governments, dogmatic religions, and a blind know-nothingness that tramples on what it does not understand…Not only a work of history, but a clarion call for those who love books and obsess over their survival.

Arts Fuse - Thomas Filbin

If you care about books, and if you believe we must all stand up to the destruction of knowledge and cultural heritage, this is a brilliant read—both powerful and prescient.

Elif Shafak

Chronicles how libraries have served as sanctuaries for knowledge under constant threat, and what that means for the present and the future…Shows that when knowledge in print is threatened by power, it’s people pledged to the printed page, rather than armies, who step in…Made clear to me just how vulnerable libraries really are. When we don’t properly fund them, we risk lies becoming the truth, and the truth becoming a joke.

Slate

Whether we are looking at history ancient or modern, the wicked behavior is the same. And those seeking to destroy accumulated knowledge do not only deploy violent methods. One of the subtle themes in the book is how long-term destructive behavior toward learning and knowledge manifests itself—not as book-burning so much as a slow and metaphorical burn. Ovenden describes cases of the destruction of knowledge due to gradual organizational neglect; a ‘lack of oversight, leadership, and investment’; and the ‘underfunding, low prioritization, and general disregard for’ institutions that preserve and share knowledge—savage indictments of a kind of bureaucratic destruction that read like office memoranda from the present day.

Los Angeles Review of Books - Peter B. Kaufman

A magnificent book—timely, vital, and full of the most incredible tales. A manifesto for our humanity and its archives.

Philippe Sands

A stark and important warning about the value of knowledge and the dangers that come from the destruction of books. Vital reading for this day and age.

Peter Frankopan

When people burn books, they are doing more than attacking words on paper. They are attempting to destroy the record of a people’s past and, through that, their right to be present…It is tempting to think the danger of literature erasure is now behind us because we can store it all digitally. This, Ovenden says, is mistaken. Digital records are fragile…This book should stir us to thinking and to action—against censorship, against careless loss, and for the preservation of the memory of where we came from and of our right to be where we are.

Financial Times - Michael Skapinker

Burning the Books at once provides a striking reminder of the necessity of such places for social well-being, along with a kind of love letter to some of the best librarians history has to offer…Ovenden’s volume is an unambiguous reminder of the risks specific individuals took to ensure the survival of written knowledge…Throughout Burning the Books, we are clearly in the hands of someone who has devoted his life to preserving the written word, and we can only hope that individuals like Ovenden will receive the necessary support in order to continue to resist ‘the long history of attacks on knowledge’ that he chronicles.

Daniel Diez Couchn Literary History

For Ovenden, the imperative to preserve libraries draws moral force from the memory of oppressors who have tried to obliterate all memory of the oppressed…The keeping of records remains itself a kind of warfare. The keepers, whether they wish so or not, cannot be neutral.

Public Books - Elyse Graham

Unbiased and first-rate scholarship.

Library Quarterly - Jeffrey Garrett