Content note: Shows uniformed men burning books on a street, with blood-red smoke and a swastika-era setting, as printed. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Books are weapons in the war of ideas
A giant open book stands over a street where uniformed men in Nazi-era dress feed books into a bonfire; a quotation signed 'Franklin D. Roosevelt' fills the page, and a red-tinted sky frames the scene. The signed quotation from a head of state is the testimonial, and the burning scene carries the fear-appeal.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Office of War Information
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- War and the military, Media and information
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Office of War Information. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-127 (NAID 513575).
Text on the object
Books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can put thought in a concentration camp forever. No man and no force can take from the world the books that embody man's eternal fight against tyranny. In this war, we know, books are weapons. [signature: Franklin D. Roosevelt] BOOKS ARE WEAPONS IN THE WAR OF IDEAS [imprint: illegible small print, Office of War Information, Washington, D.C.]
