#BurningTheBooks

'Burning the Books' on a bookshelf, front cover upwards.

@richove.bsky.social #BurningTheBooks spotted in the wild (Ty Newydd to be precise)

Thanks for upping this, John. #BurningtheBooks keeps being an authoritarian priority across the globe ...

Oh this is very sad news. He was a real hero. -gave evidence in the trials of Milosevic and Mladic at the Hague - he faced the monsters. He showed us how libraries are of crucial importance for their communities - esp when they are deliberately targetted. I celebrated his work in #Burningthebooks

US archivist ousted after refusing to let Trump give Eisenhower’s sword to King Charles – reports The Trump administration ultimately gave the King a replica sword on the president’s recent state visit

More #Burningthebooks as the arbitrary use of power being exercisd againt the Director of the Eisenhower Presidential Library. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Thanks so much for recommending #Burningthebooks Mary! Another follow up piece, on libraries in Trump’s America, will appear in @theobserveruk.bsky.social this coming Sunday …

#NZGovt are busy closing down #knowledge #statistics & recording of data -what don’t they want known or taught? #fascism involves #BurningtheBooks & controlling the message in #media #education #nzpol
#AtlasNetwork #census

More cuts proposed at Ministry for Culture and Heritage

Immense dignity and restraint on show from Dr Carla Hayden, in her first interview since being fired by email from her position as Librarian of Congress. #Burningthebooks in full flow in Trump’s America.’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rme21qIbVHM

The Astonishing Light of Your Being Aida...

Thank you to the amazing @elifshafak.bsky.social for remembering Aida Butorovic, the librarian from Sarajevo murdered by a sniper in 1992 on the day the National Library was attacked (& for the shout out to my #Burningthebooks) in your latest Substack post open.substack.com/pub/elifshaf...

Thanks so much for reading #Burningthebooks Eduardo, and for recommending it - available in paperback too (from my friends @johnmurrays.bsky.social & in North America from @harvardpress.bsky.social). The war on knowledge continues, librarians & archivists are on the front line.

Thanks for highlighting this from #Burningthebooks Eduardo … back to the 16th century future …

Thanks for recommending #Burningthebooks Mary. It is still available from @johnmurrays.bsky.social in the UK and from @harvardpress.bsky.social in North America! History may not be repeating just now, but it certainly is rhyming ….

The Trump administration is sabotaging your scientific data | Jonathan Gilmour Burying our heads in the sand won’t stop the climate crisis or pandemics. We’re taking action to preserve government tools

The social importance of the preservation of knowledge (the key message in #Burningthebooks) kicking in here: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Thanks for reading #Burningthebooks Sebastian, and thanks too for all you great work with @datarescueproject.org

Thanks for the shout out for #Burningthebooks (still available from my friends @johnmurrays.bsky.social and @harvardpress.bsky.social)!

The Unbelievable Scale of AI’s Pirated-Books Problem Meta pirated millions of books to train its AI. Search through them here.

What a depressing irony that my #Burningthebooks & seven of my scholarly articles have been pirated by Meta for LibGen. We are experimenting with AI @bodleianlibraries.bsky.social using only public-domain materials. This industry needs to be regulated! www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

The Volunteer Data Hoarders Resisting Trump’s Purge Can librarians and guerrilla archivists save the country’s files from DOGE?

I highlighted the critical role of activist archivists during the first Trump administration in my #Burningthebooks (still available from @johnmurrays.bsky.social & @harvardpress.bsky.social) and here they are stepping up to the plate again. www.newyorker.com/news/the-led....

Thanks for listening to the audiobook version of #Burningthebooks. The period we are living in now is a new phase in the deliberate destruction of knowledge.

Thanks for the recommendation. #BurningtheBooks was written in part as a warning about the danger of allowing authoritarian regimes to have control of knowledge ... 'there is no political power without power over the archive'....

BBC Radio 4 - Burning the Books by Richard Ovenden, 1. A Scholar's Mission Henry VIII entrusts a scholar with a mission.

Delighted that BBC Radio4Extra are repeating the serialisation of my #Burningthebooks, as read by the great librarian Rupert Giles (er, I mean Anthony Head). Book still available (John Murray/HarvardUP) www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Thanks for reading #Burningthebooks Jonathan!

Thanks for reading it Mary - hope you find it interesting. Currently writing something about #Burningthebooks going on right now …

Thanks for reading #Burningthebooks!

Thanks for reading #Burningthebooks Jay -
I am still positive despite the continued instances of the deliberate destruction of knowledge.

Thanks for the extremely kind call-out for #BurningtheBooks (available in the UK from @johnmurrays.bsky.social and in the US and Canada from Harvard University Press)!

Now more than ever, it is important to revisit and reinterpret this text in today’s context, with a broader perspective. We must ask ourselves: what is our stance on knowledge? True freedom of expression originates in the freedom to think freely. #BurningTheBooks

Cover of the paperback edition of Burning the Books by Richard Ovenden

Cover of the Harvard University Press edition of Burngin the Books by Richard Ovenden

Apols for the self promotion but #BurningtheBooks was written during the first Trump era (& in part responded to it). The coming years portend intensified attacks on knowledge. My CODA re-ups the argument for libraries & archives as infrastructure of democracy.

Delighted to be speaking on #Burningthebooks #QuiemarLivros for the Folio Festival in the ancient and beautiful city of Óbidos! Obligada!