When the * * * * elements invaded Mali and then Timbuktu in 20 12, their targets included priceless manuscripts and books that needed to be burned. But if it weren't for people like Abdul Qadir haidara who risked their lives to protect medieval works, the losses might be even greater. He and others successfully smuggled 350,000 manuscripts, which not only proved the value of these books, but also proved that ordinary people are willing to save space. This is a great victory for arsonists to threaten books for a long time, and it is also a rare victory. For thousands of years, books and libraries have been the goals of people from all backgrounds, sometimes intentionally, and sometimes as a side effect of war. In 2 13 BC, Qin Shihuang of China (famous for his terracotta warriors and horses in Xi 'an) ordered the burning of a pile of books to consolidate the power of his new empire. Historian Lois Mai Chan believes: "His basic goal is not so much to completely eliminate these schools of thought as to put them under the control of * * *." The book of songs, philosophy books and history books are all aimed at these schools, so the new emperor cannot be weakened into a more virtuous or successful ruler in the past. Although the amount of information about the specific losses is unknown, Chen Fengfuzhen wrote that historical schools suffered the most.

Qin Shihuang was the only ruler in ancient times. He felt threatened by written thoughts, which was enough to advocate arson. In the History of Rome completed by Levy in 1 century, he described the rulers in the past, who ordered the prophecies in books and the details of celebrations such as bacchanalia to be banned and burned to prevent chaos and the spread of foreign customs. Philosophers giordano bruno and Jan Huss both sided with Catholicism, the former because of his study of Copernican cosmology, and the latter because of his attack on the indulgence of the church. The scholar Hans J. Hilbrand wrote that the executioners accused of killing heretics such as Bruno and Hus are often the ones who set fire to their books.

However, for Rebecca Knut, Qin and religious leaders like him, the authors of "Libraries: The Destruction of Government-sponsored Books and Libraries in the 20th Century" and "The Flattening of Books and Libraries: Extremist Violence and Cultural Destruction" are only a small part of the early book burning equation. Knut said: "Many acts of burning ancient books are the result of conquest. Look at one of the most famous burning examples. The library of Alexandria was destroyed. The contents and structure of this famous building were burnt down during many periods of political turmoil, including Caesar's pursuit of Pompeii to Egypt in 48 BC and Khalifa Omar's invasion of Alexandria in 640 AD.

What changed everything was the printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440. Not only books suddenly increased, but also knowledge increased. "With the printing press, your literacy rate, modern science and all these things have been greatly improved," Knut said. "Under the dictatorship, some people want to reverse the influence of the print media in some way."

According to Knuth, after the printing press helped bring about the Enlightenment, the motivation for burning books changed, although the collateral damage of the war continued to appear (just think about the Library of Congress in the United States during the 18 12 war or all the libraries destroyed in Europe during World War II. People regard knowledge as a way to change themselves and the world, so knowledge becomes a more dangerous behavior and is no longer completely controlled by elites. What better way to restore the balance of power and transmit information than burning books? Knut said that the unifying factor of all kinds of purposeful book burners in the 20th century was that the criminals felt like what he said to the Smithsonian: "Although we still keep our jobs, we can't really engage in any scientific research." Although these methods may be different (not obvious) from the past, the result is the same: knowledge is purposefully obtained from the public.

Technology has undoubtedly changed the way we enjoy and save information, but Knuth believes that no matter what form we take, the core motivation of burning books is the same: giving priority to one kind of information rather than another.

"This is why power is so terrible," Knut said. "Because power allows you to realize the logic of your beliefs." "