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Author: Richard Ovenden Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674241207 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 321
Book Description
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 In preserving notions of statehood recorded in such historical documents as the Declaration of Independence, libraries support the state itself.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.
Author: Richard Ovenden Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674241207 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 321
Book Description
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.
Author: Julian Lees Publisher: Constable ISBN: 1472123123 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 319
Book Description
'Lees' strikingly descriptive writing transports you directly to the streets of Jakarta... this will make you want to book a flight right now' Independent A killer hides in plain sight on the crowded streets of Jakarta . . . When a woman's scorched remains are discovered in her burnt-out car, Ruud Pujasumarta and his team are brought in to investigate what appears to be a routine homicide. But when another woman's charred body is found a few days later, Ruud also finds a banner unfurled by the corpse's feet. A verse from the Quran is scribbled across it, calling for unbelievers to be burned. Suspicions that the team have a religiously-motivated serial killer on their hands seem to be confirmed when a third body turns up with the same MO. But who is responsible? Is it the Australian diplomat who was obsessed with the first victim? The imam who preaches Sharia law? Or the military general taking backhanders and living a life of luxury in Jakarta? Despite the many possible suspects, Ruud is suspicious that the killer may actually be someone much closer to home, someone he has trusted for many years. What unravels next is a terrifying chain of events . . . And what Ruud discovers puts his life, and the lives of those around him, in danger. Praise for Julian Lees 'Lee's striking descriptive writing transports you directly to the streets of Jakarta' Irish Independent 'A darkly compelling tale of family secrets, lies and murder' Crime Review
Author: M. Fishburn Publisher: Springer ISBN: 0230583660 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 239
Book Description
This provocative new work examines the years between the Nazi book fires and the publication of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953), a period when book burning captured the popular imagination. It explores how embedded the myths of book burning have become in our cultural history, and illustrates the enduring appeal of a great cleansing bonfire.
Author: Claire North Publisher: Hachette UK ISBN: 0316498858 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 448
Book Description
“ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS I'VE READ IN RECENT YEARS. THOUGHT PROVOKING, IMAGINATIVE AND PACKS A HELL OF AN EMOTIONAL PUNCH.” —Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time From one of the most imaginative writers of her generation comes an extraordinary vision of the future… Ven was once a holy man, a keeper of ancient archives. It was his duty to interpret archaic texts, sorting useful knowledge from the heretical ideas of the Burning Age—a time of excess and climate disaster. For in Ven's world, such material must be closely guarded so that the ills that led to that cataclysmic era can never be repeated. But when the revolutionary Brotherhood approaches Ven, pressuring him to translate stolen writings that threaten everything he once held dear, his life will be turned upside down. Torn between friendship and faith, Ven must decide how far he's willing to go to save this new world—and how much he is willing to lose. “A riveting tale of subterfuge and deadly self-indulgence” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) from award-winning author Claire North, Notes from the Burning Age puts dystopian fiction in a whole new light. Also by Claire North: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August Touch The Sudden Appearance of Hope The End of the Day 84K The Gameshouse The Pursuit of William Abbey
Author: Michael D. Barbezat Publisher: Cornell University Press ISBN: 1501716816 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 209
Book Description
Burning Bodies interrogates the ideas that the authors of historical and theological texts in the medieval West associated with the burning alive of Christian heretics. Michael Barbezat traces these instances from the eleventh century until the advent of the internal crusades of the thirteenth century, depicting the exclusionary fires of hell and judicial execution, the purifying fire of post-mortem purgation, and the unifying fire of God's love that medieval authors used to describe processes of social inclusion and exclusion. Burning Bodies analyses how the accounts of burning heretics alive referenced, affirmed, and elaborated upon wider discourses of community and eschatology. Descriptions of burning supposed heretics alive were profoundly related to ideas of a redemptive Christian community based upon a divine, unifying love, and medieval understandings of what these burnings could have meant to contemporaries cannot be fully appreciated outside of this discourse of communal love. For them, human communities were bodies on fire. Medieval theologians and academics often described the corporate identity of the Christian world as a body joined together by the love of God. This love was like a fire, melting individuals together into one whole. Those who did not spiritually burn with God's love were destined to burn literally in the fires of Hell or Purgatory, and the fires of execution were often described as an earthly extension of these fires. Through this analysis, Barbezat demonstrates how presentations of heresy, and to some extent actual responses to perceived heretics, were shaped by long-standing images of biblical commentary and exegesis. He finds that this imagery is more than a literary curiosity; it is, in fact, a formative historical agent.
Author: Anne Blonstein Publisher: Lulu.com ISBN: 0615185797 Category : Poetry Languages : en Pages : 184
Book Description
we are i and my spooky sister. we invade the silence of sounds. he wrote: i dream every day and, really, they are always beautiful dreams she dreamt of a road that knows only the horizon. she dreamt of a hug that was hotter than chillies. she dreamt of a ceiling of butterflies. from The Butterflies and the Burnings
Author: Shannon Hale Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1408811987 Category : Young Adult Fiction Languages : en Pages : 223
Book Description
Enna and Princess Ani became fast friends in The Goose Girl, but now that Ani is married to Prince Geric, Enna returns to the forest. Then Enna's simple life changes for ever when she learns of her power to wield fire. Enna is convinced that she can use her ability for good - to fight Tira, the kingdom threatening the Bayern borders. But the power of the fire grows stronger and she is soon barely able to control it. Enna becomes more and more reckless and is captured by the Tiran army. A handsome and manipulative young captain drugs and holds Enna prisoner until Ani and her old friends Finn, and Razo attempt to free her. But has the desire to burn already gone too far?
Author: Dirk Rohmann Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG ISBN: 3110485559 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 364
Book Description
It is estimated that only a small fraction, less than 1 per cent, of ancient literature has survived to the present day. The role of Christian authorities in the active suppression and destruction of books in Late Antiquity has received surprisingly little sustained consideration by academics. In an approach that presents evidence for the role played by Christian institutions, writers and saints, this book analyses a broad range of literary and legal sources, some of which have hitherto been little studied. Paying special attention to the problem of which genres and book types were likely to be targeted, the author argues that in addition to heretical, magical, astrological and anti-Christian books, other less obviously subversive categories of literature were also vulnerable to destruction, censorship or suppression through prohibition of the copying of manuscripts. These include texts from materialistic philosophical traditions, texts which were to become the basis for modern philosophy and science. This book examines how Christian authorities, theologians and ideologues suppressed ancient texts and associated ideas at a time of fundamental transformation in the late classical world.
Author: Julian Lees Publisher: Hachette UK ISBN: 1472123123 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 319
Book Description
'Lees' strikingly descriptive writing transports you directly to the streets of Jakarta... this will make you want to book a flight right now' Independent A killer hides in plain sight on the crowded streets of Jakarta . . . When a woman's scorched remains are discovered in her burnt-out car, Ruud Pujasumarta and his team are brought in to investigate what appears to be a routine homicide. But when another woman's charred body is found a few days later, Ruud also finds a banner unfurled by the corpse's feet. A verse from the Quran is scribbled across it, calling for unbelievers to be burned. Suspicions that the team have a religiously-motivated serial killer on their hands seem to be confirmed when a third body turns up with the same MO. But who is responsible? Is it the Australian diplomat who was obsessed with the first victim? The imam who preaches Sharia law? Or the military general taking backhanders and living a life of luxury in Jakarta? Despite the many possible suspects, Ruud is suspicious that the killer may actually be someone much closer to home, someone he has trusted for many years. What unravels next is a terrifying chain of events . . . And what Ruud discovers puts his life, and the lives of those around him, in danger. Praise for Julian Lees 'Lee's striking descriptive writing transports you directly to the streets of Jakarta' Irish Independent 'A darkly compelling tale of family secrets, lies and murder' Crime Review
Author: Kenneth Baker Publisher: Unicorn Publishing Group ISBN: 9781910787113 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
In this revealingly illustrated book, the political sage Kenneth Baker records the many times throughout history when books have been burnt for political, religious, or personal reasons.
Author: Richard Ovenden
Author: Richard Ovenden
Author: Julian Lees
Author: M. Fishburn
Author: Claire North
Author: Michael D. Barbezat
Author: Anne Blonstein
Author: Shannon Hale
Author: Dirk Rohmann
Author: Julian Lees
Author: Kenneth Baker