How widespread has book-burning been in previous millenniums and in the third and latest so far?

Question

Is it ever a fair reaction?

With reference to the second response,
that is difficult medicine to go down!

Answer 1

All sorts of books have been censored and I generally don't agree with censorship, but I do agree with age-appropriateness. I wouldn't want my kids reading Mein Kampf in Grade 7 or Howl by Allen Ginsberg in Grade 9. Not because I favour banning anything. If you're going to argue against the occult, for example what are the Chronicles of Narnia, (used to be called the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)?

I don't want them listening to an old N.W.A. album or Fifty Cent. Totally inappropriate. I do agree with banning hate literature.

Answer 2

Both the Nazis and the Communists burnt books; obviously there was the Bonfire of the Vanities during the Renaissance when both books and paintings were burned.
This millenium? I bet there's been a fair bit.
I give old paperbacks that are falling apart what i call a Viking funeral and burn them rather than bin them; seems more in keeping with honouring books than just discarding them when they are so decrepit that they can no longer be read. But I'd never burn a book I disagreed with.

Answer 3

This has been a feature of extremist regimes and religions. Perhaps the most notorious is the burning of the Library of Alexandria early in the first millenium by Christians who wished the eliminate all traces of intellectual opposition to their religion. In this way much of the ancient wisdom of the Middle east was lost.
In the second millenium it was more frequent as more books were available and was certainly a feature of Hitler's Nazi regime, where it was done almost as a duty.

Answer 4

Not so much now, but it was rampant in some places in the past and it still goes on. It is never fair. Everybody should have full access to all ideas and literature that people put out there.
If someone is just burning their own book(s) to make space for stuff, they are still polluting the environment. :)

Answer 5

Book burning is never a good reaction, even to hateful ideas. See the following website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_burning

Answer 6

religious books burnt world wide all religions and culture germany
europe and when paper was invented and also bc in middle east papyrus,and undiscovered history