Historical relics

Barbara Pensom believes that history still matters

Burning books is agreed to be an outrage. Books are the repository of the history and culture of the forebears of a people and are revered as the representation of shared experience and shared values. Thus, the deliberate destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria, the burning of English translations of the Bible in the seventeenth century and the insult to synagogue scrolls in the twentieth were viewed with consternation at the time and with sadness and regret by subsequent generations. Even the suggestion that local public libraries be closed, or Meeting house collections pruned, evokes a surprising resistance that is more than merely literary.

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