Good books, bad books, forbidden books, banned books, who decides? Books are read, bought, borrowed, discarded, analyzed, criticized, and then some higher power decides which books should be allowed and which should be banned?
The banning of books is as old as time; there are references dating back to Babylonia, where the royal library was torched after the conquest of the Assyrian capital, marking the world’s first large-scale destruction of books.
In China, in 213 BC, Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor to unify China, acted out of fear; he wanted to consolidate his power by destroying books related to astrology, agriculture, medicine, divination, and the history of the Qin state, he not only destroyed those books but also ordered more than 460 scholars to be hurried alive in the second year of the proscription.
The reason behind this decision was the fear of Confucianism. Many scholars followed Confucianism, which emphasized moral leadership, social harmony, and the importance of tradition. Qin Shi Huang feared any opposition; he wanted to solidify his power, and burning books was part of the standardization of language, weights, and measures across the empire.
This was thought to create a unified culture, thus making it easier to govern.
The Infamous History of Book Burning
The destruction of books was also part of ancient Rome, where Julius Caesar burned what was once the world’s most extensive library, the Library of Alexandria. Half a million manuscripts, including a significant number of volumes documenting Greek civilization, were lost overnight.
More burnings followed. For example, in 13th-century France, the Talmud, a Jewish religious text, and then other nations followed, such as Italy in the 5th century, the Czech Republic in the 14th century, and Spain in the 1560s, all of which destroyed tens of thousands of texts. Fear, it seems, often dominates the fate of books.
In the United States, the 17th century saw the burning of books that were considered heretical or blasphemous by the Puritan New Englanders, for example, William Pynchon’s The Meritorious Price of Our Redemption (1650), for its unorthodox religious views.
Another example was the 1850s: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was burned in some areas for its anti-slavery message.
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Book Banning In Modern Settings
After that time, there was a resurgence of book burning by the Nazi-dominated student groups, carrying out book burnings for literature they deemed “un-German’, works by prominent Jewish liberals and leftist writers were burned in bonfires in 34 university towns and cities in the 1930s.
As the 20th century progressed, with the McCarthy Era in the 1950s, books were not burned but subjected to widespread censorship and destruction. These books were considered “un-American” or communist.
The 21st century also saw issues with some books. For example, in 2010 a Florida pastor saw fit to organize a Qur’an burning, which was met with international outrage. In recent years, school districts in the U.S. and Canada have removed, sometimes even destroyed, books deemed inappropriate or offensive.
In 2021, an Ontario, Canada school board removed and ceremonially burned books with “outdated and inappropriate depictions of indigenous peoples” as part of a reconciliation effort.
Book Banning Continues
In the 20th century, the decision to ban one or more books mainly came from parents, school boards, and religious groups who objected to profanity, sexual content, or racial themes.
However, many outstanding literary works have met with challenges from the American Library Association, which contested the bans on such books as The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and The Color Purple by Alice Walker. These three examples show fear or the misunderstanding of novels that explore fundamental themes of reality and history.
Unfortunately, the 21st century has seen an escalation and political polarization of book banning. Most of the bans stem from schools and libraries that target LGBTQ and personal identities, race and racism, and sexual education.
Notable targets include Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, and Beloved by Toni Morrison. The groups that object to these books being in public libraries or studied in schools are organizations such as Moms of Liberty, State legislatures, PEN America, and a number of others.
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Two Sides of An Argument
The debate on whether to ban books in public libraries, especially those assigned to the classroom, continues as both sides fight to protect their positions. The first argument is to protect children from explicit content, violence, or potentially harmful themes. These groups feel their parental rights must be respected, as their primary goal is to protect the children.
Then there are moral and religious values, where the objection here is that books that oppose or conflict with a group’s moral or spiritual values, and finally, their contemplation of age appropriateness. Which books are suitable for different age groups?
This is another aspect of the argument that many of the groups opposed to certain material feel that certain books are not appropriate for younger children.
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On the other side, we have free expression and intellectual freedom. This group feels that the restriction means a form of censorship and restricts intellectual freedom.
Another argument is that diverse perspectives on different experiences and cultures expose students to diverse perspectives and viewpoints.
Access to all kinds of books develops empathy, critical thinking skills, and a better understanding of the world. Understanding is empowering, and that impacts students in making them fearful and intimidated; basically, they miss out on important information and lessons, and the expansion of their knowledge and views.
Final Thoughts
Although parents have the right to protect their children, they should never have the right to restrict others in their own decisions. Children need to be protected, but open-mindedness must be a priority.
We cannot make choices for others, but we must also consider the mental health of individuals in their choices. Literature has been a part of humanity for as long as the written word has existed; it teaches us vocabulary, syntax, history, and much more. So, go to your local library or bookstore, or look online and choose a book; it will most likely enrich your world.
