Burning a Book

While the phenomenon of book burning has occurred on a global scale for thousands of years, the modern genesis of this practice occurred during World War II. The German book burnings of 1933 are historically infamous, exemplifying how the political, moral, cultural, religious and/or personal ideologies of those in power directly impact the type of information disseminated to the public. In 1933 Germany, any text outside of the ideological canon of Nazism went up in flames. The mass censorship of ideas was thought to be directly linked to mass population control. However, by writing within the American context, William Stafford further complicates the justifications for book burning by centering the individual in his poem “Burning a Book.”

Master of Information researcher Lisa Olsen writes about the distinctly American aspects of book burning stating that “[b]ook burning in America is not about censorship: it is about the opposite, free speech and making a statement that is rooted in a deep sense of morality” (“Moral Bonfires: An Exploration of Book Burning in American Society,” Lisa Olsen, Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management (2021), page 6). Stafford takes to task the hypocrisy of this American individualism, exposing that while truth may be lost when books are destroyed, it is also lost when members of the American populace refuse to exercise their Freedom of Speech (see: Poem Analysis). Stafford strips back the ritualistic, sensational elements of book burning, focusing instead on how societal silence enacts just as much violence.

Book burning as a method of censorship exists within a strict binary: right and wrong, truth and lies. However, by purposefully choosing a topic with a long and sordid history, Stafford examines the nuances of book burning, putting both collective and individual action under a microscope.