Written by Valerie Huang
Edited by Lauren Huye
In 212 B.C., Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang burned most of the books in his kingdom so that “history [could] be said to begin with him” (“Bannings and Burnings”). Owners of the Book of Songs or the Classic of History received the most severe punishments (“The First Emperor”). One copy of every book, destroyed before his death, was left in the Royal Library. Other than that, the only other books Huang spared were about agriculture, medicine, prognostication, or Qin’s history (Müller). Before his reign ended he also buried 460 Confucian scholars alive for owning banned books and to control the historical narrative (“The First Emperor”).
In 1497, notorious Italian Dominican friar Girolama Savonarola led a “bonfire of the vanities,” in which he burned sinful “things that distracted Florentines from their religious duties,” such as cosmetics, art, clothing and books (Eschner). Earlier, books about magic and astrology were targeted; later, works from poets such as Ovid, Boccaccio, Prospertius, and Dante were collected and burnt for being “immoral” (“The Bonfire”). Over time, Savonarola’s extreme beliefs resulted in his enemies declaring him a heretic. Ironically, at his execution burning, Savonarola’s writings, essays, sermons, and pamphlets were burned along with him, marking the end of a period of drastic censorship (“Bannings and Burnings”).
In 1559, Pope Paul IV established the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, a list of books Roman Catholics were forbidden to read. The index was an “attempt to combat the spread of some of the writings of the Protestant Reformation,” and it supposedly prevented “the contamination of the faith or the corruption of morals through the reading of theologically erroneous or immoral books” (“Index Librorum Prohibitorum”). It banned books about theology, political theory, love, science, history, medicine, and philosophy (Mirabella). In addition, a ban against “the ‘Bible in Castilian Romance or any other vulgar tongue’” was active until the eighteenth century (“Index Librorum Prohibitorum”). Famous authors whose books were banned include Italian poet Dante Alighieri, English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, French Enlightenment writer Voltaire, French philosopher Montesquieu, and English poet John Milton (“Banned Literature”). The works of modern Western philosophers, no matter their religious beliefs, were also heavily censored. Anyone who was caught buying, selling, reading, translating, or circulating any of these novels could be excommunicated, or excluded from participation in Christian services or sacraments (Mirabella).
In the 1930s, Nazi Germany’s book bans and burnings were infamous for censorship targeting Jewish authors and content that contrasted the Nazi agenda, such as pacifist or communist works (“Bannings and Burnings”). For instance, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and Relativity: The Special and the General Theory by Albert Einstein were banned because both authors were Jewish (“Censorship”). Other notable works that were seized and burnt include Helen Keller’s How I Became a Socialist for its socialist ideology, Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front for its “grim and gruesome depiction of WW1,” Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms for its “total negation of warfare,” and Jack London’s The Iron Heel for depicting a fascist society saved by a socialist hero (“Helen Keller;” “Censorship;” “Ernest Hemingway;” “Jack London”). In addition, the Nazis also strictly controlled the media that the German youth consumed. Many books containing topics such as the Soviet Union, Germany, marriage, Jewish people, and Hitler were banned in an attempt to rewrite history and control the cultural narrative (Greene).
In recent years, book censorship in certain areas of the United States has surged to massive levels, especially of fiction young adult novels. PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans shows that 33% of banned books contain LGBTQ+ content, 41% contain protagonists of color, and 22% address race and racism (Friedman and Johnson). Many of these novels have been banned for allegedly “obscene” content. The most commonly banned novels include Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe, All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson, Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison, and Out of Darkness by Toni Morrison (Friedman and Johnson).
In the United States, politics have become deeply involved in the process of book challenging and banning. Both parties are reluctant to compromise, and the difference in what they view as appropriate content grows more and more obvious every time a new challenge is raised. For instance, many conservative politicians such as Matt Krause and Rob Standridge have protested against books about sexual orientation and gender identity (Haupt). In contrast, liberal politicians have protested against some literary classics such as Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird for their use of racist slurs and “white savior” characters (Haupt).
Although government censorship of media has been prevalent throughout history, recent attempts by civilians to combat this issue have allowed for more access to restricted content. For instance, The Uncensored Library is a project created in the video game Minecraft that was launched by Reporters Without Borders. It allows players living in countries with severe media censorship to access content by journalists who had been exiled, imprisoned, or killed for writing about controversial political stories (“The Uncensored Library”). Projects such as these give hope for the oppressed worldwide and prevent their manipulation and misinformation. As such, supporting efforts against restricted media is of the utmost importance to ensure the safety and happiness of the world’s future generations.
Sources
“Banned Literature.” Loras College Library, https://library.loras.edu/bannedliterature/index.
“Bannings and Burnings in History.” Freedom to Read, https://www.freedomtoread.ca/resources/bannings-and-burnings-in-history/.
“The Bonfire of the Vanities.” Italy On This Day, 7 Feb. 2017, https://www.italyonthisday.com/2017/02/the-bonfire-of-vanities.html.
“Censorship, Banning, and Book Burning in Nazi Germany.” Media and Cultural Analysis, https://counterarchive.hosting.nyu.edu/exhibits/show/book-banning-by-governments/censorship--banning--and-book-.
“Ernest Hemingway.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ernest-hemingway.
Eschner, Kat. “A Fanatical Monk Inspired 15th-Century Italians to Burn Their Clothes, Makeup and Art.” Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian Institution, 7 Feb. 2017, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/when-fanatical-monk-took-over-florence-and-burned-bunch-vanities-180962005/.
“The First Emperor of China Destroys Most Records of the Past Along with 460, or More, Scholars.” HistoryofInformation.com, https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=2491.
Friedman, Jonathan, and Nadine Farid Johnson. “Banned in the USA: Rising School Book Bans Threaten Free Expression and Students’ First Amendment Rights.” Edited by James Tager et al., PEN America, https://pen.org/banned-in-the-usa/#trends.
Greene, Travis. “Data Analysis: Books Banned by the Nazis.” Medium, Towards Data Science, 13 Aug. 2018, https://towardsdatascience.com/data-analysis-books-banned-by-the-nazis-c9d3cf0cfab3.
Haupt, Angela. “The Rise in Book Bans, Explained.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 9 June 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/06/09/rise-book-bans-explained/.
“Helen Keller.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/helen-keller.
“Index Librorum Prohibitorum.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 31 Mar. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Index-Librorum-Prohibitorum.
“Jack London.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jack-london.
Mirabella, Valentina. “How the Index Librorum Prohibitorum Ended up on an Illustrated Magazine.” European Studies Blog, 25 Sept. 2019, https://blogs.bl.uk/european/2019/09/how-the-index-librorum-prohibitorum-ended-up-on-an-illustrated-magazine.html.
Müller, Claudius Cornelius. “Qin Shi Huang.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 10 Apr. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Qin-Shi-Huang.
“The Uncensored Library.” The Uncensored Library, https://uncensoredlibrary.com/en.
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