book-burning
Destroying texts ceremonially
Book-burning is the deliberate destruction of books by fire, typically as an act of censorship or ideological purging.
The practice carries heavy historical associations with authoritarian regimes—particularly Nazi Germany's 1933 bonfires of "un-German" books.
Today it extends figuratively to any suppression of ideas: The school board's curriculum changes amounted to intellectual book-burning.
Officially disallowed
- suppressionForcible prevention or concealment
- forbiddenNot allowed
- proscribeOfficially forbid something
- blacklistRecord of prohibited entities
purge · inquisition · redaction · expurgate · bowdlerize · sanitization · taboo · restrictions
Maintaining something's condition
- memoryMind's retention capacity
- testimonySworn statement as evidence
- witnessOne who attests
- smugglingIllegal covert transport
hiding · samizdat · underground · defiance · remembrance · memorial · documentation · archiving
Funeral burning heap
- bonfireLarge outdoor fire
- flamesVisible burning combustion
- ashesBurned matter's residue
- incinerateBurn to nothing
conflagration · inferno · char · scorch · blaze · embers · kindling · immolation
Obsessive, unreasoning dedication
- zealotryExcessive devotion to beliefs
- bigotryIntolerance toward differing views
- persecutionSystematic mistreatment of groups
- witch-huntPersecution of supposed subversives
extremism · dogmatism · fundamentalism · sectarianism · narrow-mindedness · xenophobia · hatred · mob
Ultranationalist dictatorial political system
- regimeSystem of governance
- authoritarianFavoring absolute control
- dictatorRuler with total control
- thoughtcrimeProhibited beliefs under authoritarianism
dystopia · repression · uniformity · conformity · hegemony · ideology · propaganda · indoctrination
banned
Officially disallowed
- suppressionForcible prevention or concealment
- forbiddenNot allowed
- proscribeOfficially forbid something
blacklist · purge · inquisition · redaction · expurgate · bowdlerize · sanitization · taboo · restrictions · samizdat
preservation
Maintaining something's condition
smuggling · hiding · samizdat · underground · defiance · remembrance · memorial · documentation · archiving · reconstruction
pyre
Funeral burning heap
incinerate · conflagration · inferno · char · scorch · blaze · embers · kindling · immolation · combustion
fanaticism
Obsessive, unreasoning dedication
- zealotryExcessive devotion to beliefs
- bigotryIntolerance toward differing views
- persecutionSystematic mistreatment of groups
witch-hunt · extremism · dogmatism · fundamentalism · sectarianism · narrow-mindedness · xenophobia · hatred · mob · hysteria
fascism
Ultranationalist dictatorial political system
- regimeSystem of governance
- authoritarianFavoring absolute control
- dictatorRuler with total control
thoughtcrime · dystopia · repression · uniformity · conformity · hegemony · ideology · propaganda · indoctrination · radicalization
- oppressionoppression, tyranny, racism, repression, secret police
book-burningpreservation
Maintaining something's condition
archiving · conservation · publishing · cataloguing · digitization
book-burningfree speech
Protected verbal liberty
freedom of expression · intellectual freedom · anti-censorship · freedom of the press · free press
book-burningcommemoration
Act of honoring memory
memorialization · heritage preservation · remembrance · documentation · historical preservation
book, burn, burning, books, burned, booklet, burns, e-book, burner