3 ms·

Publishers Gave Away 123M Books During World War II

89 points by jrslv 11y ago

wodenokoto 11y ago
It is funny how "giving away a book" has changed meaning since then. Today, "giving away 1 book" is easily understood as potentially indefinite copies of a single work, but the headline here refers to 123 million, physical copies of a much smaller amount of works.
- lkbm 11y ago
  Since it came with the WWII context and the 123M number, it didn't even occur to me that today we'd read it differently, but you're right--if it were about today, and about <500 books, I'd think it was giving copyright. (At higher numbers, I'd assume physical copies unless it explicitly said copyright.)
m52go 11y ago
Very interesting. I wonder if something similar could happen today...digital or our paper, books have so much to compete with for peoples' attention. I think we as a society could really use it.
- veddox 11y ago
  > I think we as a society could really use it. Definitely. I think books are by far the most effective way of giving people a real education. There's nothing like a good collection of books for teaching you knowledge, broadening your worldview and making you a thinking citizen. Books are more available now than they ever were before - just think Project Gutenberg. Unfortunately, we lack the general culture of serious reading that would be needed to fully make use of that potential.
  - petra 11y ago
    It's not just culture, even many people who love to read, find it difficult to read among all the distractions and the impact of the net.
frik 11y ago
Many books were "given away" (forced) and burnt in fires at Reichskristallnacht Nov 1938: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht Many thousands years old historic books, papyrus papers were destroyed amd vanished forever.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  The future dystopian version of that: you wake up one morning to find out that all your e-books have self destructed based on a remote command embedded in your reader that would otherwise allow a retraction by the publisher. http://www.wired.com/2012/10/amazons-remote-wipe-of-customers-kindle-highlights-perils-of-drm/ http://www.wired.com/2012/10/amazons-remote-wipe-of-customer...
  - EliRivers 11y ago
    That's the present dystopia. The future dystopia is that off-message books get censored and rewritten on your device without you ever knowing.. or is that also the present dystopia? :)
veddox 11y ago
Interesting side note: German publishers hit on a similar strategy in the early post-war years. Nobody could afford to buy hardcovers anymore, so they printed their books on newspaper-paper instead, to be sold cheaply at the roadside - and thrived.
- a3n 11y ago
  > so they printed their books on newspaper-paper That's called newsprint. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsprint https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsprint

89 points by jrslv 11y ago

It is funny how "giving away a book" has changed meaning since then. Today, "giving away 1 book" is easily understood as potentially indefinite copies of a single work, but the headline here refers to 123 million, physical copies of a much smaller amount of works.

lkbm 11y ago
Since it came with the WWII context and the 123M number, it didn't even occur to me that today we'd read it differently, but you're right--if it were about today, and about <500 books, I'd think it was giving copyright. (At higher numbers, I'd assume physical copies unless it explicitly said copyright.)

m52go 11y ago

Very interesting. I wonder if something similar could happen today...digital or our paper, books have so much to compete with for peoples' attention. I think we as a society could really use it.

veddox 11y ago
> I think we as a society could really use it. Definitely. I think books are by far the most effective way of giving people a real education. There's nothing like a good collection of books for teaching you knowledge, broadening your worldview and making you a thinking citizen. Books are more available now than they ever were before - just think Project Gutenberg. Unfortunately, we lack the general culture of serious reading that would be needed to fully make use of that potential.
- petra 11y ago
  It's not just culture, even many people who love to read, find it difficult to read among all the distractions and the impact of the net.

frik 11y ago

Many books were "given away" (forced) and burnt in fires at Reichskristallnacht Nov 1938: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht Many thousands years old historic books, papyrus papers were destroyed amd vanished forever.

jacquesm 11y ago
The future dystopian version of that: you wake up one morning to find out that all your e-books have self destructed based on a remote command embedded in your reader that would otherwise allow a retraction by the publisher. http://www.wired.com/2012/10/amazons-remote-wipe-of-customers-kindle-highlights-perils-of-drm/ http://www.wired.com/2012/10/amazons-remote-wipe-of-customer...
- EliRivers 11y ago
  That's the present dystopia. The future dystopia is that off-message books get censored and rewritten on your device without you ever knowing.. or is that also the present dystopia? :)

veddox 11y ago

Interesting side note: German publishers hit on a similar strategy in the early post-war years. Nobody could afford to buy hardcovers anymore, so they printed their books on newspaper-paper instead, to be sold cheaply at the roadside - and thrived.

a3n 11y ago
> so they printed their books on newspaper-paper That's called newsprint. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsprint https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsprint