Anthony McIntyre views with alarm the recent assault on free inquiry by the book police.


Photo @ The Telegraph

When Sarah Vine, the wife of Tory Minister Michael Gove, posted images of what the couple's bookcase housed, it was met with howls of opprobrium in some quarters. The worked up "Wokerati" as Christopher Owens so pejoratively described them, seemed to froth that Gove, through what his bookcase displayed, had committed "the sin of containing books these people disapprove of..."

The irony is that the charge was led by an author of a number of books, Owen Jones, who is also a Guardian columnist. He came out of the traps like a firefighter from Fahrenheit 451. This was the title so given to a book by Ray Bradbury because it was the temperature at which a book would burn to ash. In the novel the task of the fire fighter was to destroy books. Jones tweeted:

Why does Michael Gove and his wife own a copy of a book by David Irving, one of the most notorious Holocaust deniers on earth? ... I subscribe to the Telegraph and read right-wing columnists every day because it’s important to read people I disagree with. You can’t learn anything from a lying book which rewrites history to suit the Nazis, 

Setting aside that Irving should never have been jailed in Austria for holding the invidious opinion that there was no Holocaust, there is a lot to be learned from books written by him and people like him. How, for example, they might use sources for fallacious purposes, their selective mining of the archives, and the methodology they employ in the creation of a patently false narrative. All of this is of immense value to serious researchers seeking to demolish the construction of fake news.

It might not have been so bad had Jones merely had a rush of blood to the head, been on a solo run, and therefore not representative of some wider body of anti-thought eager to fire verboten salvos in the direction of free inquiry. There was company unfortunately. Alastair Campbell tweeted that “Having Hitler, Rommel and Napoleon next to Maggie is not a good look.” Grumblings from elsewhere that the couple also owned The Bell Curve by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray are as equally suffocating. Oxford academic Dr Jennifer Cassidy, in joining the fray moved to counter Sarah Vine by posting an image of herself in front of her own bookshelf:

Here’s a picture of me NOT reaching for the work of prominent Holocaust denier David Irving. Or having The Bell Curve on my shelf. See it really is that simple, not to have those books on your shelves.

That sounds more simpleton than simple.

The only reason anyone should make it their business to concern themselves with what literature Michael Gove might display on his bookshelf is intellectual curiosity. Otherwise it is none of their business. They might even stretch that curiosity to the point of wondering what Gove might find interesting in a certain book, what it is that draws him to its pages. But to go off on one in response to him owning particular books exhibits a censorious trait that poses a threat to free inquiry. People can choose to have on their bookshelves whatever it is they want and labour under no compunction to explain or justify the presence of books to anyone. What they retain in their book collection has Sweet FA to do with Dr Cassidy, Alastair Campbell, Owen Jones or whoever else make up the ranks of the perennially offended wokerati.

Each Wednesday evening TPQ features a slot called Booker's Dozen where people answer thirteen questions about their choice of books. It is prompted by a love of books. It would be great to feature Owen Jones or Michael Gove out of simple curiosity as to what they read, their literary likes and dislikes. There is no question that seeks to uncover what books should be banned.

In this house there is a massive range of books, many of them by people whose ideas we abhor including Celsius 7/7 by Michael Gove. There are two volumes of Hitler's War by David Irving. There is even one by Ken Ham: Why Won't they Listen? The Power of Creation Evangelism.

The shelves are strewn with works by fascists and theologians, informers and cops, authors like Gerry Adams, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Charles Moore and Danny Morrison. There is simply no end to the presence of adversarial books. Our lives are all the more intellectually enriched for that. The Shelf Stasi can suck the butt end of my budgie. The books are staying put.

Although it has been claimed there was a more sinister tinge to Gove and Vine's bookcase, this is reactionary nonsense masquerading as progressive. What is really sinister is the insidious affront to free inquiry containing within it the secular equivalent of an Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre

Book Police

Anthony McIntyre views with alarm the recent assault on free inquiry by the book police.


Photo @ The Telegraph

When Sarah Vine, the wife of Tory Minister Michael Gove, posted images of what the couple's bookcase housed, it was met with howls of opprobrium in some quarters. The worked up "Wokerati" as Christopher Owens so pejoratively described them, seemed to froth that Gove, through what his bookcase displayed, had committed "the sin of containing books these people disapprove of..."

The irony is that the charge was led by an author of a number of books, Owen Jones, who is also a Guardian columnist. He came out of the traps like a firefighter from Fahrenheit 451. This was the title so given to a book by Ray Bradbury because it was the temperature at which a book would burn to ash. In the novel the task of the fire fighter was to destroy books. Jones tweeted:

Why does Michael Gove and his wife own a copy of a book by David Irving, one of the most notorious Holocaust deniers on earth? ... I subscribe to the Telegraph and read right-wing columnists every day because it’s important to read people I disagree with. You can’t learn anything from a lying book which rewrites history to suit the Nazis, 

Setting aside that Irving should never have been jailed in Austria for holding the invidious opinion that there was no Holocaust, there is a lot to be learned from books written by him and people like him. How, for example, they might use sources for fallacious purposes, their selective mining of the archives, and the methodology they employ in the creation of a patently false narrative. All of this is of immense value to serious researchers seeking to demolish the construction of fake news.

It might not have been so bad had Jones merely had a rush of blood to the head, been on a solo run, and therefore not representative of some wider body of anti-thought eager to fire verboten salvos in the direction of free inquiry. There was company unfortunately. Alastair Campbell tweeted that “Having Hitler, Rommel and Napoleon next to Maggie is not a good look.” Grumblings from elsewhere that the couple also owned The Bell Curve by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray are as equally suffocating. Oxford academic Dr Jennifer Cassidy, in joining the fray moved to counter Sarah Vine by posting an image of herself in front of her own bookshelf:

Here’s a picture of me NOT reaching for the work of prominent Holocaust denier David Irving. Or having The Bell Curve on my shelf. See it really is that simple, not to have those books on your shelves.

That sounds more simpleton than simple.

The only reason anyone should make it their business to concern themselves with what literature Michael Gove might display on his bookshelf is intellectual curiosity. Otherwise it is none of their business. They might even stretch that curiosity to the point of wondering what Gove might find interesting in a certain book, what it is that draws him to its pages. But to go off on one in response to him owning particular books exhibits a censorious trait that poses a threat to free inquiry. People can choose to have on their bookshelves whatever it is they want and labour under no compunction to explain or justify the presence of books to anyone. What they retain in their book collection has Sweet FA to do with Dr Cassidy, Alastair Campbell, Owen Jones or whoever else make up the ranks of the perennially offended wokerati.

Each Wednesday evening TPQ features a slot called Booker's Dozen where people answer thirteen questions about their choice of books. It is prompted by a love of books. It would be great to feature Owen Jones or Michael Gove out of simple curiosity as to what they read, their literary likes and dislikes. There is no question that seeks to uncover what books should be banned.

In this house there is a massive range of books, many of them by people whose ideas we abhor including Celsius 7/7 by Michael Gove. There are two volumes of Hitler's War by David Irving. There is even one by Ken Ham: Why Won't they Listen? The Power of Creation Evangelism.

The shelves are strewn with works by fascists and theologians, informers and cops, authors like Gerry Adams, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Charles Moore and Danny Morrison. There is simply no end to the presence of adversarial books. Our lives are all the more intellectually enriched for that. The Shelf Stasi can suck the butt end of my budgie. The books are staying put.

Although it has been claimed there was a more sinister tinge to Gove and Vine's bookcase, this is reactionary nonsense masquerading as progressive. What is really sinister is the insidious affront to free inquiry containing within it the secular equivalent of an Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre

12 comments:

  1. This is my eighth week not working, hopefully my last. I must admit the woke mob have given me a chuckle to combat the boredom. There's nothing they don't get upset about. What people read, how men sit in public transport, how men jog, Adele's weight loss, so on so forth. They're genuinely annoyed. It's hilarious. If people become racist, Islamophobic, anti -Semitic through reading or websites, whatever. That's the individual's problem, not the author. When you were growing up did the propaganda make you a Republican? Or did you become a Republican then read the propaganda? My case I'd say the latter.

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  2. Well said, Anthony. One should never judge a person by the books they choose to read. Have you got thr memo Owen, Alastair et al?

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  3. Although it is merely Owen Jones taking a pot shot at Gove, the speed at which others like Elizabeth Day and Jennifer Cassidy have run with this is astonishing. I used to get it a few years ago when people would see that I had Boyd Rice and Death in June records in my collection.

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  4. good piece and terrifying that it has come to this. Truly as David said there is nothing the woke don't try to get offended by. I think especially with the younger millennial generation they have been so coddled that anything that challenges their thinking results in a meltdown and retreat to their "safe spaces". You see it with books and protests against speakers that might "trigger" them. It's not even just specific authors but reading about any content deemed offensive. Last summer on a flight from Dallas to Chicago I was reading Aaron Edwards book on the UVF. Some woman sitting next to me goes "sorry but do you actually support those guys?" I assured her I was not a UVF supporter and asked her when did the rules change that you have to only read books that align with your beliefs and politics. Sad that our society is becoming this way.

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  5. Owen Jones at his oul lark again pretending he is anti establishment...........until NATO needs to intervene with some freedom bombing again of course!

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    Replies
    1. Owen Jones has never supported any NATO or other interventions overseas. That is fact, MickO.

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  6. Did Morrison survive the Great Bog Roll Shortage Tony?

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  7. Anthony,

    I agree anyone should have and read whatever books they like.

    And I too recommend we all read “…adversarial books”.

    Since as you say we’ll all be:

    “…the more intellectually enriched for that.”

    However, I don’t see any adversarial books on Gove & Vine’s bookcase.

    No Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn or Anthony McIntyre.

    And of course no Stephen Jay Gould:

    The Mismeasure of Man

    The definitive refutation to the argument of The Bell Curve.

    https://www.amazon.com/Mismeasure-Man-Revised-Expanded/dp/0393314251

    Like a lot of people, they like reading what they agree with.

    Which at best is a self-limiting use of free inquiry.

    And an indication they’re not progressive or intellectually enriched.

    Compared to your own diverse collection of books.

    But it’s their business unless they publicize it...

    As they have here.

    Moreover, Gove is a Conservative minister under Boris Johnson.

    And his wife Vine is a Conservative writer for the Daily Mail.

    They make careers out of their political commentary.

    As such they’re both fair game for other people to comment…

    Upon the “sinister tinge” of their political book selection.

    And it’s not reactionary nonsense to claim that.

    Because Gove & Vine are right-wing and reactionary.

    Besides, no one called for government book censorship here.

    Only snide comments on their limited literary range.

    Hardly the equivalence of having an Index.

    Just some people seeing other people for what they are.

    Albeit in some cases, exposing their own limitations in the process.

    But such social hypocrisy is not religious or government control.

    At least not yet.

    But I think Alastair Campbell got it right:

    “Having Hitler, Rommel and Napoleon next to Maggie is not a good look."

    But that's only because right-wing reactionaries...

    Think they are a good look without need for contrary views.


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  8. Owen Jones wanted NATO member states to bomb Syria. Fact. Some 'anti imperialist' he is.

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  9. As someone who supported enforcement of no fly zones in Syria and military action against Assad in the wake of the Gouta chemical weapons atrocity in August 2013 and air strikes in support of the Kurdish peshmerga's liberation stuggle in ISIS-occupied Syrian territory, I have no recollection of Owen Jones supportiong any such actions. I would like references to such, MickO.

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  10. Barry,

    From what I've read Owen Jones was opposed to bombing Syria.

    And perhaps (unlike yourself) for good reason:

    Bombshell: Syrian Gas Attack Was Faked & Whistleblower smeared.

    May 15, 2020

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0EOR8LyalA

    You’d think by now such government PR stunts wouldn’t fool anyone:

    How False Testimony (about Kuwaiti babies in incubators) and massive U.S. propaganda bolstered Senior Bush’s War on Iraq

    Dec 5, 2018

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkRylMGLPMU

    Junior Bush’s speech on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbP8HGxrgo8

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