Burning Books vs. Banning Books: Plot Twist, it’s the same!

Post date: May 9, 2025

By Gianna Nese

“The best books… are those that tell you what you know already,” George Orwell, 1984 (the #1 banned book in America). Ironic isn’t it? The number one banned book, talking about the importance of books. Let’s do a little history lesson, on the website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum an excerpt reads, “Beginning on May 10, 1933, Nazi-dominated student groups carried out public burnings of books they claimed were “un-German”…Works of prominent Jewish, liberal, and leftist writers ended up in the bonfires. The book burnings stood as a powerful symbol of Nazi intolerance and censorship.” Interesting. Now let’s do a little lesson on current events, the banning of books in America. According to The Guardian this is the reasoning behind banned books, “Book banning in the US has surged in the past few years, fueled by conservative backlash against discussions of race, LGBTQ+ issues, and diversity teaching in public schools.” So, in other words, censorship. These reasons lead one to wonder, is the practice of burning books and the practice of banning books the same. Spoiler alert: they are.

To begin, here are the top five reasons why books get challenged to be banned according to the First Amendment Museum is sexual content (92.5% of the banned books), offensive language (61.5 %), unsuited to age group (49%), religious viewpoint (26%), and LGBTQIA+ content (23.5 %). While some may argue that while these books got challenged, they have not actually been banned because the act of banning books has not been brought up to the Supreme Court. However, the whole point of censoring these books is to protect the American people, but believe it or not, books are not the number one cause of death for teens and children in America. It is, you guessed it, firearms, and firearms have yet to have regulations in America, unlike books, according to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. While obtaining firearms is an American’s Second Amendment right, most people forget the First Amendment right, so let’s refresh. The First Amendment is, the freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly and petition, which reading books and media falls under the freedom of speech and press. Going back to the reason why the books get banned, the ultimate reason is censorship, which if we can recall our  history lesson is the same reason books got burned in Nazi Germany. 

In Nazi Germany the books that got burned did not follow the ideals of the dictator in political power. Ironically, many of the books that get banned have themes that relate to marginalized groups and minorities. For example, one of my favorite books, Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is the #3 banned book in 2025, the reason being sexual themes and LGBTQIA+ themes. Those “sexual themes” is sexual assault awareness, and the LGBTQIA+ themes is about a gay character and his boyfriend who has internalized homophobia and is hiding his true self. Doesn’t representation of sexual assault and internalized homophobia sound important? The answer is yes, because people who have experienced those themes that must be censored for the safety of everyone in America, need to have representation to know that they are not alone in that experience. In Nazi Germany books by Albert Einstein were burned, to censor the knowledge that he had to offer much like banned books in America are challenged in order to censor whatever story they have to offer to the world. It does not matter who the author was or what the book’s intent was, it is about censorship. What is un-German? What is un-American? That is the ultimate goal of banning books in America and burning books in Germany.