Click2History - Book Burning - Chapter 3

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000>BOOK BURNING</p> <p><FONT SIZE=4><b>CHAPTER 3 - FREE EXPRESSION IN BOOKS</FONT></p>  <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">The subject of this story is freedom of thought expressed in writing. Books (and their precursors) represent the best method people have to preserve and share their thoughts and ideas. As a result, the destruction of books represents some of the most flagrant abuses of free expression in recorded history. </p> <p>If we examine how frequently books were destroyed - especially by <a href="http://www.humanities-interactive.org/lbonfire.jpg" ; target="_blank"><B>burning</b></a> - in the centuries before the American Republic, we can understand why protecting freedom of expression was a first precept in creating the legal foundations of American society.</p> <p>Written thoughts on clay tablets, animal skins (scrolls) and papyrus were early forms of "books." For thousands of years before the printing press, scholars wrote and scribes <a href="http://philae.sas.upenn.edu/French/21.jpg" ; target="_blank"><b>copied</b></a> "books" by hand. Sometimes it took a year or more to write, or copy, one manuscript. Often these works were beautifully <a ; target="_blank" href="http://www.hmml.org/exhibits/bethune/bet1-73l.jpg"><b>illuminated</b></a> with stunning <a ; target="_blank" href="http://www.hmml.org/exhibits/gavin/gavin1/g1-87r-l.jpg"><b>pictures</b></a> and brightly colored letters. Using our world of cyber evidence, we can actually examine some of those ancient writings which scribes sought to protect from certain destruction by conquering enemies or dictating governments. </p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="book_burning_ch2.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="book_burning_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER  </a>   <a href="book_burning_ch4.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>