A Universal History of the Destruction of Books: From Ancient Sumer to Modern Iraq

Fernando Báez · Atlas & Co. / Seven Stories Press (English trans. Alfred MacAdam), 2008 (original Spanish: Editorial Destino, 2004)

tlte-cite:jaffna-1981-bez-2008

Editorial gloss

Venezuelan bibliographer and library director Báez's landmark comparative study covers book and library destruction from Sumer to 2003 Iraq. While not primarily focused on Jaffna, it provides the essential comparative framework and documents the Jaffna burning in its global survey, contextualising it alongside the Sarajevo library (1992) and Mosul (2015). The theoretical chapters on the psychology and politics of biblioclasm are foundational for any cultural-genocide analysis.

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case suppression
jaffna library 1981
cultural destruction

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