Burning books and leveling libraries : extremist violence and cultural destruction. Rebecca Knuth.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Understanding modern biblioclasm -- Tracing the path of extremism from Robespierre to Milosevic -- Political protestors and Amsterdam's South African Institute, 1984 -- Ethnic biblioclasm, 1980-2005 -- National Socialism and the destruction of Berlin's Institute for Sexual Knowledge, 1933 -- Secular fanaticism and the auto-genocide of Cambodia, 1975-1979 -- Fundamentalism and the destruction of Afghanistan's cultural heritage, 1994-2001 -- Dueling ideologies and total war, 1939-1945 -- Anarchy and acquisitive vandalism, 1967-2003 -- Errors of omission and cultural destruction in Iraq, 2003.

Knuth reports on the destruction of libraries and books by extremists around the world during the 20th century and investigates some of the complex motivations behind these violent acts. She first looks at the use of biblioclasm as a tactic of political or ethnic protest at the local level. Next, she discusses the purging of libraries in the aftermath of power struggles in Germany, Afghanistan, and Cambodia. The final three chapters consider the fate of libraries when war creates a power vacuum--with special attention paid to the looting of Iraq's cultural institutions in 200.