Download or read book Books on Fire written by Lucien X. Polastron and published by Lucien X. POLASTRON. This book was released on 2007-08-13 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Almost as old as the idea of the library is the urge to destroy it. Author Lucien X. Polastron traces the history of this destruction, examining the causes for these disasters, the treasures that have been lost, and where the surviving books, if any, have ended up. Books on Fire received the 2004 Societe des Gens de Lettres Prize for Nonfiction/History in Paris.
Download or read book Burning Books and Leveling Libraries written by Rebecca Knuth and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2006-05-30 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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. 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.
Download or read book Libricide written by Rebecca Knuth and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2003-07-30 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings, declared German poet Heinrich Heine. This book identifies the regime-sponsored, ideologically driven, and systemic destruction of books and libraries in the 20th century that often served as a prelude or accompaniment to the massive human tragedies that have characterized a most violent century. Using case studies of libricide committed by Nazis, Serbs in Bosnia, Iraqis in Kuwait, Maoists during the Cultural Revolution in China, and Chinese Communists in Tibet, Knuth argues that the destruction of books and libraries by authoritarian regimes was sparked by the same impulses toward negation that provoked acts of genocide or ethnocide. Readers will learn why some people—even those not subject to authoritarian regimes—consider the destruction of books a positive process. Knuth promotes understanding of the reasons behind extremism and patterns of cultural terrorism, and concludes that what is at stake with libricide is nothing less than the preservation and continuation of the common cultural heritage of the world. Anyone committed to freedom of expression and humanistic values will embrace this passionate and valuable book.
Download or read book Burning the Books written by Richard Ovenden and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Library Book written by Susan Orlean and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Susan Orlean’s bestseller and New York Times Notable Book is “a sheer delight…as rich in insight and as varied as the treasures contained on the shelves in any local library” (USA TODAY)—a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution and an investigation into one of its greatest mysteries. “Everybody who loves books should check out The Library Book” (The Washington Post). On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. The fire was disastrous: it reached two thousand degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who? Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a “delightful…reflection on the past, present, and future of libraries in America” (New York magazine) that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before. In the “exquisitely written, consistently entertaining” (The New York Times) The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries; brings each department of the library to vivid life; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago. “A book lover’s dream…an ambitiously researched, elegantly written book that serves as a portal into a place of history, drama, culture, and stories” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis), Susan Orlean’s thrilling journey through the stacks reveals how these beloved institutions provide much more than just books—and why they remain an essential part of the heart, mind, and soul of our country.
Download or read book Hands Around the Library written by Karen Leggett Abouraya and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-08-30 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspiring true story of demonstrators standing up for the love of a library, from a New York Times bestselling illustrator In January 2011, in a moment that captured the hearts of people all over the world, thousands of Egypt's students, library workers, and demonstrators surrounded the great Library of Alexandria and joined hands, forming a human chain to protect the building. They chanted "We love you, Egypt!" as they stood together for the freedom the library represented. Illustrated with Susan L. Roth's stunning collages, this amazing true story demonstrates how the love of books and libraries can unite a country, even in the midst of turmoil.
Download or read book Burning Books written by Haig A. Bosmajian and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2006 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This work provides a detailed account of book burning worldwide over the past 2000 years. The book burners are identified, along with the works they deliberately set aflame"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book This Book Is Gay written by Juno Dawson and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling young adult non-fiction book on sexuality and gender! Lesbian. Gay. Bisexual. Transgender. Queer. Intersex. Straight. Curious. This book is for everyone, regardless of gender or sexual preference. This book is for anyone who's ever dared to wonder. This book is for YOU. This candid, funny, and uncensored exploration of sexuality and what it's like to grow up LGBTQ also includes real stories from people across the gender and sexual spectrums, not to mention hilarious illustrations. Inside this revised and updated edition, you'll find the answers to all the questions you ever wanted to ask, with topics like: Stereotypes—the facts and fiction Coming out as LGBT Where to meet people like you The ins and outs of gay sex How to flirt And so much more! You will be entertained. You will be informed. But most importantly, you will know that however you identify (or don't) and whomever you love, you are exceptional. You matter. And so does this book. This book is for: LGBTQIA+ teens, tweens, and adults Readers looking to learn more about the LGBTQIA+ community Parents of gay kids and other LGBT youth Educators looking for advice about the LGBTQIA+ community Praise for This Book is Gay: A Guardian Best Book of the Year 2018 Garden State Teen Book Award Winner "The book every LGBT person would have killed for as a teenager, told in the voice of a wise best friend. Frank, warm, funny, USEFUL."—Patrick Ness, New York Times bestselling author "This egregious gap has now been filled to a fare-thee-well by Dawson's book."—Booklist *STARRED REVIEW*
Download or read book The Zebra Storyteller written by Spencer Holst and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fiction. "Holst has long been treasured in the underground New York literary scene. His impish delivery is filled with a childlike delight in tale-spinning, and yet his work is recognized for its inscrutable mysteries. Containing every story Holst has ever written, nearly a third of them never before published, this collection should establish Holst's reputation among a wider public. If there is a single aesthetic preoccupation in these tales, it is with storytelling itself. In the title piece, a Siamese cat speaks Zebraic,' bewitching zebras so that he is able to kill them, until he meets the zebra storyteller who has already imagined a Siamese cat speaking Zebraic. This allows him to kill the cat, and that is the function of the storyteller,' Holst concludes. Such postmodern concerns, however, do not become boorish. Above all, Holst seeks to entertain, not lecture; imagination and language receive no especial privilege here, but humor always does. In The Language of Cats,' at the end of one rather long and unsuccessful attempt to describe a confused state of mind, the narrator resorts to: imagine how the world would appear to a person after finishing such a ridiculously lengthy, pointless sentence.' Such authorial winks give a hint of what it is like to be in the presence of this master of the told tale"--Publisher's Weekly.
Download or read book Burnt Books written by Rodger Kamenetz and published by Schocken. This book was released on 2010-10-19 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the acclaimed author of The Jew in the Lotus comes an "engrossing and wonderful book" (The Washington Times) about the unexpected connections between Franz Kafka and Hasidic master Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav—and the significant role played by the imagination in the Jewish spiritual experience. Rodger Kamenetz has long been fascinated by the mystical tales of the Hasidic master Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav. And for many years he has taught a course in Prague on Franz Kafka. The more he thought about their lives and writings, the more aware he became of unexpected connections between them. Kafka was a secular artist fascinated by Jewish mysticism, and Rabbi Nachman was a religious mystic who used storytelling to reach out to secular Jews. Both men died close to age forty of tuberculosis. Both invented new forms of storytelling that explore the search for meaning in an illogical, unjust world. Both gained prominence with the posthumous publication of their writing. And both left strict instructions at the end of their lives that their unpublished books be burnt. Kamenetz takes his ideas on the road, traveling to Kafka’s birthplace in Prague and participating in the pilgrimage to Uman, the burial site of Rabbi Nachman visited by thousands of Jews every Jewish new year. He discusses the hallucinatory intensity of their visions and offers a rich analysis of Nachman’s and Kafka’s major works, revealing uncanny similarities in the inner lives of these two troubled and beloved figures, whose creative and religious struggles have much to teach us about the Jewish spiritual experience.
Download or read book The Burning Library written by Geordie Williamson and published by Text Publishing. This book was released on 2012-10-24 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alarmed by the increasingly marginal status of Australian literature in the academy, Williamson has set out to reintroduce us to those key writers whose works we may have forgotten or missed altogether. His focus is on fiction that gives pleasure, and he is ardent in defence of books that for whatever reason sit uneasily in the present moment.
Download or read book The Edge Is Burning written by Paul Kropp and published by High Interest Publishing Inc.. This book was released on 2008 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 12-16 yrs.
Download or read book Why I Burned My Book and Other Essays on Disability written by Paul K. Longmore and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Personal inclination made me a historian. Personal encounter with public policy made me an activist.'
Download or read book A Universal History of the Destruction of Books written by Fernando Báez and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the many reasons and motivations for the destruction of books throughout history, citing specific acts from the smashing of ancient Sumerian tablets to the looting of libraries in post-war Iraq.
Download or read book Cosmic Banditos written by A. C. Weisbecker and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2001-03-01 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soon to be a major motion picture starring John Cusack! Mr. Quark is a down-on-his luck pot-smuggler hiding out in the mountains of Colombia with his dog, High Pockets, and a small band of banditos led by the irascible Jose. Only months before, these three and their fearless associates were rolling in millions in cash and high-grade marijuana, eluding prosecution on “ridiculously false” drug and terrorism charges. But times have quickly grown lean, and to liven up their exile, Jose decides to mug a family of American tourists. Among the spoils are physics texts, which launch Mr. Quark on a side-splitting, boisterous adventure north to California, where he confronts the owner of the books with his own theories on relativity, the nature of the universe, and looking for the meaning of life in all the wrong places….
Download or read book Tulsa Burning written by Anna Myers and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-07-15 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The day he buried his pa, Nobe Chase lost everything-his father, his home, and his dog, Rex. Worst of all, he had to move into town to live with Sheriff Leonard-dog killer, wife stealer, and secret law-breaker of all sorts. That day, Nobe found a new purpose for his life-revenge. Hate takes over his life, burning out of control inside him. Nobe learns how dangerous hate can be when it is unleashed in a fury of fire and gunpowder during a race riot in nearby Tulsa. When the violence spills over into his hometown, Nobe must decide what kind of man he is going to become-one driven by vengeance or one driven by courage. Based on true events in Tulsa, Oklahoma, during May of 1921, Anna Myers has produced a powerful novel about a young man who must wrestle with his past and find the strength to pull free from the poisonous grip of hatred and abuse.
Download or read book Book Destruction from the Medieval to the Contemporary written by G. Partington and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-09-09 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This rich and varied collection of essays by scholars and interviews with artists approaches the fraught topic of book destruction from a new angle, setting out an alternative history of the cutting, burning, pulping, defacing and tearing of books from the medieval period to our own age.
