Books on Fire: The Destruction of Libraries throughout History [Hardcover]

Lucien X. Polastron (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 24, 2007

A historical survey of the destruction of knowledge from ancient Babylon and China to modern times

• Includes the three separate destructions of the Library of Alexandria as well as many equally significant collections around the world

• Examines the causes of violence directed at repositories of knowledge

• Looks at the dangers posed by digitalization of books to the free availability of knowledge in the future

Hebrew, Hindu, Nordic, and Islamic traditions share the belief of a vast library existing before the creation of the world. The Vedas say that this library predated the creator’s creation of himself. Yet, almost as old as the idea of the library is the urge to destroy it. The reasons cited for this are many: educated people are much harder to govern, and some proclaim that only the illiterate can save the world. There are also great destructions brought about by weather, worms, and even the paranoia of the library’s owner.

Books on Fire traces the history of this perpetual destruction from the burning of the great library of Alexandria (on three separate occasions) and the libraries of the Chinese Qing Dynasty to more modern catastrophic losses such as those witnessed in Nazi-occupied Europe and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The author examines the causes for these disasters, the treasures that have been lost, and where the surviving books, if any, have ended up. His investigation also reveals a new danger facing libraries today with the digitalization of books threatening both the existence of the physical paper book and the very idea of reading for free. The promise of an absolute library offered by the computer may well turn out to equal the worst nightmares of Ray Bradbury, Aldous Huxley, and George Orwell.

Books on Fire received the 2004 Société des Gens de Lettres Prize for Nonfiction/History in Paris.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his acclaimed Double Fold (2001), Nicholson Baker expressed outrage over newspapers and books turned into landfill by librarians who chose microfilm over paper. French historian Polastron picks up where Baker left off, writing with equal passion yet punctuating his pages with wit. A specialist in Chinese and Arab studies, Polastron surveys the annihilation of libraries from ancient Mesopotamia and China to potential problems looming with the cyber contents of today's virtual books.Although Polastron learned of lost libraries while writing a history of paper, it was the 1992 destruction of the National Library in Sarajevo that triggered his desire to explore all nooks and crannies of history in the attic of every civilization.Over the millennia, libraries crumbled to rubble during wars and bombings; theft and storage problems account for more losses. As countless books went up in smoke, others sank to a watery grave during shipwrecks and floods. Lamenting the loss of the ancient Alexandria library, the author covers books that perished during the Inquisition, the French Revolution and in Nazi Germany. Polastron's exhaustive research and vast scope make this detailed, authoritative study a revelatory read. (Oct. 26)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Polastron's exhaustive research and vast scope make this detailed, authoritative study a revelatory read."
(Publisher's Weekly, July 16, 2007 )

"If you are lover of the printed word, this book will open your eyes, and most likely shock you."
(Mike Gleason, alt.religion.wicca, Sept 4, 2007 )

"This book contributes to a new understanding of the devastation caused by book burning. Every reader's worst nightmare is recorded with horrid fascination."
(Fernando Báez, author of A Universal History of the Destruction of Books )

"In addition to an intensive survey of book destruction as policy, Books on Fire provides a splendid education in book collecting as a passion--as well as book production, library management, and great bibliophiles and their collections. . . . Jon E. Graham’s masterful translation and the author’s helpful chronology enhance this book."
(Peter Skinner, Foreword Magazine, Sept-Oct 2007 )

"A book on the subject of books - not only about books, but about the burning of books and libraries - might give the impression of being dull and boring. That is far from the case with Books on Fire . It is a fascinating account of the destruction of the world’s greatest libraries that will haunt the dreams of bibliophiles who read it . . . . Highly recommended."
(Douglas R. Cobb, Curled Up With A Good Book, Sept 2007 )

"Polastron performs marvelous feats of synthesis and revelation as he describes the lost libraries of antiquity; portrays such library makers as the Sumerian Ashurbanipal, the caliph al-Hakam (circa 970), and Liu Bang, founder of the Han dynasty; chronicles dramatic assaults against libraries; and offers discerning analysis, backed by rarely aired facts, about the crucial role books play as both vehicles of knowledge and freedom and instruments of tyranny"
(Donna Seaman, Booklist, Oct 15, 2007 )

"Polastron traces the history of this subject in an informative way, never reducing or limiting the importance of the loss of so much knowledge merely to dates and numbers of volumes lost . . . It is a fascinating account of the destruction of the world's greatest libraries that will haunt the dreams of bibliophiles who read it like the best horror novels of Stephen King or Clive Barker." (
Curled Up with a Good Book, Sept 2007 )

"A 'must-have' history for public libraries and the shelf of any book lover." (
The Midwest Book Review, Oct 2007 )

" . . . penned by a skilled writer who knows that the best way to convey history is by letting the reader in on behind the scenes descriptions, gossip, and scandal. . . . . I highly recommend Books on Fire to the historian, the literary enthusiast, and to all champions of free thought. Books on Fire is a sheer pleasure to peruse." (
Jeff Farrow, gnostics.com, Nov 2007
)

"The exhaustively researched Books on Fire is a comprehensive and authoritative historical survey of the destruction of knowledge from ancient Babylon and China to modern times." (SirReadaLot.org, Sep 07 )

"[A] comprehensive survey of book destruction worldwide--Asia and Africa as much as the Western world. . . . Recommended for academic collections and larger public libraries." (
David Keymer, Library Journal, Oct 2007 )

"The political, religious, and psychological motives for eradicating knowledge are explored by Polastron here, and he notes many faith traditions believe a  primordial library existed before the world, itself."
(Today's Books, Nov 2007 )

"Polastron performs marvelous feats of synthesis and revelation as he describes the lost libraries of antiquity . . . . (
Donna Seaman, Booklist, Oct 2007 )

"Livres en feu is Lucien X. Polastron's magisterial history of the destruction of books and libraries over the millennia. Thoroughly impressive in scope, Polastron's work takes the reader on a journey from ancient Mesopotamia to modern day times, when just recently Iraq's national library was pillaged during the U.S.invasion." (
French Publisher's Agency )

" . . . an eye-opening, involving read for any general-interest bibliophile and will make an excellent general lending library pick." (
The Midwest Book Review,  Dec 07 )

"Polastron's book is a valuable contribution to the literature on libraries. It is scholarly to a degree, as well as wry, witty, gossipy, and polemic. . . . [He] is obviously devoted to libraries and determined to record the varied faces of the barbarism that threatens to decimate them." (
Rebecca Knuth, The Times Higher Education Supplement in the UK, Dec 07
)

" . . . the point to all this is that librarians, archivists, and other information professionals need to work together to ensure that the new digital forms represent enhancements to the way society can tap into its legacy of information and evidence." (
Richard J. Cox, Reading Archives )

"More than book burning, more than mutilation, this story traces what happens to knowledge that is considered unsuitable by the authorities . . . because educated people are harder to control! The author's fine preface sets the pace for the book and what is to come." (
Lee Prosser, ghostvillage.com )

"The author's indignation burns white hot, but does not obscure his comprehensive survey of book destruction worldwide--Asia and Africa as much as the Western world." (
David Keymer, Library Journal )

"A Parisian and a scholar specializing in Chinese and Arab studies, Polastron was inspired to write about the destruction of libraries after the burning of the National Library in Sarajevo in 1992." (
Jeff Minick, Smoky Mountain News, Apr 2008 )

" . . . [examines] the newest danger facing free reading: digitalization. No longer a temple, the new Internet library is a collection of 'virtual books' made available by on-line publishers whose interests are largely profits and not the sharing of learning." (
Gail Lord, Spirit of Change, Vol. 21, No. 103, Spring 2008 )

"After reading Books on Fire, the fact that any ancient knowledge was transmitted in books through all the centuries of war, religious intolerance, societal indifference, pure accident and sheer bungling seems miraculous." (
Vincent Tinguely, Ascent Magazine, Issue 37, Jan 2008 )

"This welcome addition to the topic of annihilated libraries, authored by a noted French historian and prolific writer, presents a cornucopia of historical events and noted people (builders and destroyers of libraries) in dozens of countries from Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America during a four-millennia span . . . Recommended for public, special, and academic libraries, and of course, as professional reading for librarians at large." (
Vladimir F. Wertsman, New York Public Library, MultiCultural Review, Vol. 17, No. 1, Spring 08 )

"All of us, especially in academic libraries today, surely ought to be gravely concerned about what might be an even greater danger from electronic books. There's an ongoing debate on their possible detrimental psychological effects, and how they affect the actual process of learning and the purpose of education as our culture has traditionally conceived of it." (
Nancy McCormack, Head of the Lederman Law Library and assistant professor of law at Queen's University, Jan 2009 )

". . . his [Polastron's} story is an important one and deserves wide readership, especially for us in the business of libraries and librarianship."
(The Haworth Press, Inc, Collection Management, Dec 2009 )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Inner Traditions (August 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594771677
• ISBN-13: 978-1594771675
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,271,359 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book is Definitely NOT for Burning, October 1, 2007

By 

Jeff Farrow - See all my reviews

This review is from: Books on Fire: The Destruction of Libraries throughout History (Hardcover)

When I first took this book out of its mailing container I thought: "Gee, it's damaged. How could that have happened in a cardboard box?" Then I looked more closely & realized that the jacket of the book was cleverly designed to give the appearance of its having been burned. So that right off can't help but stir a potential reader's interest.

BOOKS ON FIRE is a historical examination of book burning & the destruction of famous(and not so famous) libraries. The work is penned by a skilled writer who knows that the best way to convey history is by letting the reader in on behind the scenes descriptions, gossip & scandal. For example, the opening chapter deals with the fabled Library of Alexandria under the imported Ptolemy dynasty (that concluded with the death of Cleopatra.) I have been studying this historic period for some time now, but Lucien X. Polastron sprinkles this section of his work with wonderful little tidbits that were new to me, and that also shed new light on this fascinating moment in time.

Regarding The Library of Alexandria, author Lucien X. Polastron quotes Hugh Lloyd-Jones: "If this Library had survived, the dark ages, despite the preponderance of Christianity, could have been considerably lighter."

Polastron opens each chapter with a short, pithy and/or poetic quotes from diverse sources. For example, the author opens Chapter 3 with this quote from Alexander Pope commenting on public book burning "Heavens, what a pile! Whole ages perish there, And one bright blaze turns learning into air."

BOOKS ON FIRE was originally written in French, and is well served by Jon E. Graham's impeccable & colloquial perfect English translation.

Polastron's writing style is poetic, contemporary, engaging, often humorous (sometimes slyly so) & extraordinarily insightful: "So just what are libraries, then? For the nation they are indecipherable dead weight, for the bureaucrats an empoisoned directive; but above all, they are the symbol of tyranny in the eyes of the restless..."

The contents cover the full gamut of book burning & library wrecking in human history, from the destruction of the Library of Alexandria, the Early Christian era, the early days of Islam, the Inquisition in Europe & the Americas, to Hitler & Stalin, up to and including our own time. In bewteen the major historical periods Polastron includes lesser known, but equally enlightening & devastating examples of violent censorship of The Collective Word. No transgressor is spared the damning spotlight revealed by the author: Left, Right & every bigoted position in bewteen. It is shocking to become aware of the thousands, probably tens of thousands of violent attempts to surpress human thought there have been throughtout our torturous history.

The section Early Islam provided a wealth of information that really helped me personally understand the historic significance of this religion. I've read a number of academic books on this complex subject, but none of them were constructed in such a way that appeals to both popular & intellctual curiosity. Again, Polastron exhibits that rare gift to draw the reader or student into a sense of intimacy and...yes, "fun."

Perhaps smiling to mask the tears would be a more apt describtion.

The effect on the European invasions on the indigenious of the "New World" is well known, but the destruction of their literature & high level of learning is not so well known because Christianity made sure to wipe out virtually every trace of it.

One can't help but to recall those famous words of Heinrich Heine: "Where they burn books, they will in the end burn human beings as well." [He made this statement refering to the burning of The Koran during the Spanish Inquisition.

Regarding the Iraq War & US Occupation Polastron aptly remarks: "The quiet list servers of the Internet...suddenly exploded with invectives and revealed how intolerance could hide precisely where it was least expected. A good number of the American subscribers displayed open hostility to any mention of Iraq and slammed shut their portals...the United States and Great Britain never ratified ratified the 1954 Hague Convention decree on the protection of cultural items in the lands to which they, as nations, might bring misfortune, the leaders of these two countries had only their consciences for their guide. As for the soldiers..."

In this chronicle the reader not only discovers the events behind the destruction, but also the history of buildings & books destroyed.

I highly recommend Books on Fire to the historian, the literary enthusiast & to all champions of free thought.

BOOKS ON FIRE is a sheer pleasure to peruse.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "must-have" history for public libraries and the shelf of any book lover., October 6, 2007

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Books on Fire: The Destruction of Libraries throughout History (Hardcover)

Historian Lucien X. Polastron presents Books on Fire: The Destruction of Libraries throughout History, a chronicle of the destruction of libraries. The reasons for expunging repositories of human knowledge were varied: educated people are more difficult to govern; some claimed that only the illiterate can save the world; sometimes library's owner succumbed to paranoia; and sometimes destruction came through weather or worms rather than human agencies. From the burning of the great library of Alexandria on three separate occasions, to the biblio-destruction inflicted under Nazi occupation and library ransacking during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Books on Fire explores the literary tragedies of history, and follows up with a new possible threat to the physical paper book - the digital book. With books increasingly being transferred to electronic mediums and read online for free, could old-fashioned libraries one day become a thing of the past? A "must-have" history for public libraries and the shelf of any book lover.

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Atrocious, January 12, 2008

By 

Niels von Deuten (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Books on Fire: The Destruction of Libraries throughout History (Hardcover)

The book's jacket draws us in with the observation that, "almost as old as the idea of the library is the urge to destroy it." One should not be fooled by this statement into thinking that the purposeful destruction of libraries will be the author's primary thesis. Indeed, purposeful, malicious, destruction is but a small subset of the author's work. The majority of his effort is devoted to recounting for us the loss, and manner of loss, of, what seems at times, to be every book in history, regardless if this book was lost because of accidental water damage, or age, or because a book seller couldn't rid themselves of it to a customer. In short, the author is not concerned with restricting himself to books that have been prosecuted against, or unique volumes, but all books in general.

With such a scope it is unsurprising that the writing dull. By page 50 we have already become so desensitized to another 50,000 volumes being lost that we hardly care. Moreover, as Polastron doesn't make an effort to create a context in which these books were destroyed, the true tragedy, if there is one, is lost upon us.

Working through the first 100 pages one may be forgiven for having the impression that this book was written for classics majors. So many individuals in so many diverse periods of history are mentioned that the book would be impossible to follow intelligently without a trained background in Greek, Roman, and Middle Eastern history. Certainly for those with this background the book may be of interest as a reference guide. Those less fortunate should not expect the author to spend time bringing them up to speed. The most he'll say is that so-and-so is "famous", ergo we should care, though why that individual is famous will remain a mystery.

Aside from this problem there is a more general issue of quality. The book is in sore need of better editing. Much of the information is superfluous and embodies the kind of material belonging in an appendix (of which, it should be noted, there are two, although these seem more like continuations of the book than proper appendixes). Furthermore, there is a severe slant in information, severely favoring the Christian West over the Chinese East. While there are passages on China, the gross difference in chapter sizes leaves one feeling as though a courtesy was being done. When some areas are so detailed we cannot help but perceive a bias against those sections left bare.

The most jarring event that readers must prepare themselves for however is in the complete change in style that the author undergoes in the last sixth of the book. Until then, we can say that "Books on Fire" is boring. Yet once the author begins to his contemporary times his voice changes from that of a historian to what we, in America, would recognize as a continental philosopher in the style of Mereau Ponty, or Michel Foucault.

Gone are the endless lists of destroyed titles and in come the nearly nonsensical ramblings that, while filled with scorn, dismay, and spite, are lacking in anything substantive. Writing on modern media, for example, the author says, "Yet during tihs time the media have made themselves the capable echo of the usual stream of mayflies attracted by the sunlamps. From Kabul, from Sarajevo they come and they go, hatching their three-hundred-line communiques in which the only new information is "I was there". They are the jet set of the world's tragedies. It must be said that it was a fine party. It cost $100 billion."

From here the author becomes ever more colorful and, unfortunately, irrelevant as he rails against digitization while never confronting the real circumstances that make alternatives unfeasible (he attacks, among other things, the continued production of books that are not protected against acidity, never-minding the cost or the wastefulness of such a procedure for protecting a product that, as he himself attests to, gets destroyed in 50% of the cases anyway).

It is almost as though, halfway through his book, the author, recalling his French philosophical heritage, feels compelled to take up the pen and begin a free-thought rant lasting over 50 pages on his personal views of modernity. This would be interesting were it not for the great expectations this book had conjured up in us. With a title so gripping, "Books on Fire" makes promise that it not only fails to keep but, in large part, completely ignores. While this does not necessarily make it a bad book, it does make for one that mismatches content with aspiration, leaving, at least this reader, thoroughly disappointed. I can only recommend this book to those who feel confident about their classical background and are not interested in a deeper study of the cause behind the destruction of books, rather than a record of this destruction.