About the book
In the America of the future, books are banned and firemen exist to start fires, not put them out. Guy Montag is one of them: he burns printed books along with the houses that hide them, then goes home to his wife Mildred, who spends her days with the voices of her television family. He has never questioned the work until he meets Clarisse, an unusual young neighbor who talks about a past when people did not live in fear and shows him a world seen through books instead of television chatter. Ray Bradbury wrote the novel during the McCarthy era, and it won the 1954 Literature Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Ryan Holiday reread it in 2015 and came away seeing Bradbury's message, spelled out in his 50th anniversary afterword, as a warning about attempts to purge offensive speech more than about government control. Tim Ferriss put it on his list of top fiction for non-fiction addicts as a classic on state censorship that still applies in a digital age.
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This book has 2 recommendations
Ryan Holiday (Founder/Brass Check)
I’m not sure what compelled me to pick Fahrenheit 451 back up but I’m so glad I did because I was able to see the book in a very different context. Bradbury’s message (made explicit in his 50th Anniversary Afterword) is much less a warning against government control and much more about a road to hell paved by people attempting to rid the world of offensive speech and conflicting ideas. In a world of microaggressions and outrage porn, this is an important idea to see in such a timeless work of fiction.
Tim Ferriss (Author & Entrepreneur)
This classic work on state censorship remains as relevant in today’s world of digital delights as it was when published in the black-and-white world of 1953.
In a futuristic American city, firefighter Guy Montag does not put out blazes; instead, he extinguishes knowledge and promotes ignorance by conducting state decreed book burnings. After an elderly woman chooses a fiery death with her books rather than a life without the written word, he begins questioning not only his profession, but also a society that allows itself to be lulled into complacency by constant exposure to state-controlled, mind-numbing television shows.
If you wonder why some people take censorship so seriously, this book will give you the answer. It’s also a fantastically inspiring story of a one-versus-a-million fight that’s worth fighting. Who knows when your turn will come?
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