The earliest account of book burning occurred in China in 213 B.C.E. Emperor Shi Huang (246-210 B.C.E.) ordered his followers to burn Confucian literature, with the exception of single copies kept for the Chinese State Library, as well as other books that could be seen to challenge his power. Shi Huang also ordered that Confucian scholars were to be buried alive.
Book burning was often part of the Inquisition, which was composed of ecclesiastical tribunals of the Catholic church set up to investigate heresy. These institutions were in effect from the twelfth century to the early eighteenth century throughout Europe and even reached the New World. Tomás de Torquemada (1420–September 16, 1498) was the first Inquisitor General of Spain. Besides the persecution of Jews and those who were considered heretics, Jewish Talmuds and Arabic books were burned as well. Fray Diego de Landa (12 November 1524 – 1579) in the Yucatan burned the sacred manuscripts of the Maya that were recorded on deerskin. He reported, "We found a large number of books in these characters and, as they contained nothing in which were not to be seen as superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all, which they (the Maya) regretted to an amazing degree, and which caused them much affliction."
Religious zealotry has often led to book burning. One such example was the work of Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican friar who exerted religious influence over Florence, Italy in the 15th century. Savonarola believed that the republic of Florence should be a Christian commonwealth with God as the Supreme Deity and with the bible as the only law. He prohibited gambling and dictated that clothing be modest and simple. Jewelry, gambling cards and dice, “immoral” books, musical instruments and paintings or sculptures were burned on “Bonfires of the Vanities” or large pyres in the town square. While Savonarola did good works by building shelters for widows and orphans, his creation of a theocratic state not under the control of the Church angered Pope Alexander VI. The pope excommunicated Savonarola on May 13, 1497. Savonarola was burned at the same city square as the “Bonfires of the Vanities” on May 23, 1498.
People often burn books for ideological reasons. The Nazis, under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, burned books starting with the destruction of 25,000 volumes on May 10, 1933. They burned books that were considered "degenerate" or not in line with what they considered to be "Aryan" or German culture. Among the books the Nazis burned were those by Jews and authors such as Ernest Hemingway, Jack London and Helen Keller, whom the Third Reich vilified for her activism with the disabled, her championing of better working conditions for industrial workers and her promotion of voting rights for women.
Censors have burned books because of perceived psychological harm. There were mass burnings of comic books in the mid-20th century because parents and educators feared that comics had a negative moral effect on America's children. An American psychologist, Dr. Fredric Wertham, M.D., published a book titled "Seduction of the Innocent" in 1954 that tied violence and sexuality in comic books to juvenile delinquency. Churches and other self-appointed morality groups, in response to the book, collected and burned comic books. "Time" magazine, on December 20, 1948, reported that Binghamton, New York residents, after going from house to house to gather comic books, burned all of them.
Not all censoring groups have psychological reservations about contemporary media but instead have spiritual fears. Fundamentalist Christians have burned books from the Harry Potter series and other books they believe are Satanic. The BBC, in a December 31, 2001 article, reported that the Christ Community Church in Alamogordo, New Mexico burned Harry Potter and Stephen King books, Ouija boards and AC/DC records because they supposedly promoted the occult. The participants also burned films of Disney's "Snow White" because they believed these interfered with a person's relationship with God.