Editing Book burning (section)

{{short description|Practice of destroying, books or other written material}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
[[File:The House of Leaves - Burning 4.jpg|thumb|A copy of ''[[House of Leaves]]'' being burned]]
[[File:1933-may-10-berlin-book-burning.JPG|thumb|Nazi youth brigades burning "un-German" works by Jewish and left-wing authors at the library of the ''[[Institut für Sexualwissenschaft]]'', 1933<ref name="holocaust" />]]
'''Book burning''' is the deliberate destruction by fire of books or other written materials, usually carried out in a public context. The burning of books represents an element of [[censorship]] and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or political opposition to the materials in question.<ref name="holocaust">{{cite web |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005852 |title=Book Burning |website=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |access-date=November 8, 2022 |archive-date=5 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305062632/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005852}}</ref> Book burning can be an act of contempt for the book's contents or author, intended to draw wider public attention to this opposition, or conceal the information contained in the text from being made public, such as diaries or ledgers. Burning and other methods of destruction are together known as '''biblioclasm''' or '''libricide'''.

In some cases, the destroyed works are irreplaceable and their burning constitutes a severe loss to [[cultural heritage]]. Examples include the [[burning of books and burying of scholars]] under China's [[Qin dynasty]] (213–210 [[BCE]]), the destruction of the [[House of Wisdom]] during the [[Mongol Empire|Mongol]] [[Siege of Baghdad (1258)|siege of Baghdad]] (1258), the destruction of [[Aztec codices]] by [[Itzcoatl]] (1430s), the burning of [[Maya codices]] on the order of bishop [[Diego de Landa]] (1562),<ref name="outrageous">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/11/13/book-burning-history/ |title=Burning books: 6 outrageous, tragic and weird examples in history |last=Brockell |first=Gillian |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=November 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211113125409/https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/11/13/book-burning-history/ |archive-date=November 13, 2021}}</ref> and the [[burning of Jaffna Public Library]] in [[Sri Lanka]] (1981).<ref name="smithsonian" />

In other cases, such as the [[Nazi book burnings]], copies of the destroyed books survive, but the instance of book burning becomes emblematic of a harsh and oppressive regime which is seeking to censor or silence some aspect of prevailing culture.

In modern times, other forms of media, such as [[gramophone record|phonograph records]], [[Video|video tapes]], and [[Compact disc|CDs]] have also been burned, shredded, or crushed. [[Art destruction]] is related to book burning, both because it might have similar cultural, religious, or political connotations, and because in various historical cases, books and artworks were destroyed at the same time.

When the burning is widespread and systematic, destruction of books and media can become a significant component of [[cultural genocide]].