Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

[Lord Mhoram]

With a couple of exceptions (like, Mein Kampf), I think this list is a crock, but here goes:

1. The Communist Manifesto
2. Mein Kampf
3. Quotations from Chairman Mao
4. The Kinsey Report
5. Democracy and Education
6. Das Kapital
7. The Feminine Mystique
8. The Course of Positive Philosophy
9. Beyond Good and Evil
10. General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
11. The Population Bomb
12. What Is To Be Done
13. Authoritarian Personality
14. On Liberty
15. Beyond Freedom and Dignity
16. Reflections on Violence
17. The Promise of American Life
18. The Origin of Species
19. Madness and Civilization
20. Soviet Communism
21. Coming of Age in Samoa
22. Unsafe at Any Speed
23. Second Sex
24. Prison Notebooks
25. Silent Spring
26. Wretched of the Earth
27. Introduction to Psychoanalysis
28. The Greening of America
29. The Limits to Growth
30. Descent of Man

Link

[Graehstone]

I think it's hilarious that Bush's face is right next to "Mein Kampf" ... oddly fitting.

[Lord Mhoram]

Heh. I saw that too. Not exactly the message they want to convey, which makes it very ironic.

[I'm Murrin]

Heh. The list is certainly good for a laugh. Loved the way they threw in at the end of the Nietzsche one "The Nazis loved Nietzsche."

[Avatar]

All knowledge is morally neutral.

--A

[aliantha]

I was going to say, "Who came up with this list, the Eagle Forum?" And then I clicked the link, and sho nuff, Phyllis Schlafly was on the committee!

[DukkhaWaynhim]

All knowledge is morally neutral.

--A

This is probably just semantical nitpicking, but I would say that it is data that is morally neutral. When data is compiled into facts/knowledge, it is nearly impossible to collect that information without spinning it, slanting it, or otherwise influencing it beyond the scope of neutral information.

So, consider yourself nitpicked.

dw

[lucimay]

Phyllis Schlafly
President
Eagle Forum

GOOD GRIEF isn't that b!tch dead yet?

the most "harmful" books might also qualify as some of the most important literature of the 19th and 20th century.

[danlo]

Remind me never to look at that website again--those people are idiots

[The Laughing Man]

danlo, don't ever look at that website again!

[Alynna Lis Eachann]

"The Evil Empire?" I'm sorry, how am I supposed to take seriously anyone who uses melodrama to make a point?

"FDR adopted the idea as U.S. policy, and the U.S. government now has a $2.6-trillion annual budget and an $8-trillion dollar debt."

??? Um, yeah, because that's FDR's fault. And, you know, Bush didn't get handed the reins to a government with a balanced budget or anything...

And I'm sorry, but why is Silent Spring on the list?

Wow, and these people call themselves scholars? Yeesh. Seems to me that the independent, objective examination of literary works is a no-no for these folks. Let's just all read the front flap and make a biased judgement on that. These are the people who give conservative thinking a bad name.

A book is only as harmful as the idiot who takes it at face value.

[Lord Mhoram]

I can't believe On Liberty is on the list. Beyond Good and Evil is in itself not dangerous at all. Democracy and Education is a very great book as well.

What do you all think of the Communist Manifesto at number one?

[danlo]

McCarthyest kneejerks-still stuck in the '50s-Mel's Diner, Happy Days, Grease all that rot....

[aliantha]

Exactly. If the book gave off even the faintest whiff of progress -- and I mean progress past, say, 1955 -- they put it on the list.

[sgt.null]

never mind, not going to say it.

[drew]

3. Quotations from Chairman Mao
As of two years ago, the only book to sell more copies than this is the Bible---Although by now, I'm sure Rowling's Deathly Hallow's has caught up

[Avatar]

It was, (IIRC, & not sure if it still is) required that every citizen in China owned a copy. So lots of sales.

--A

[sgt.null]

a friend bought me a copy when she visited China a few years back.

[Cheval]

I'm kind of suprised that "Anarchist's Cookbook" nor "Poor Man's James Bond" wasn't on the list.
Both books were banned from libraries and bookstores because they were considered "terrorist's" books.
(Wanna know how to make bombs and blow-up bridges?)
I've read one and used to own the other in the early '80s.
Now, if you you want to own either book, you must "special order" and "register" the book with the goverment.

[Avatar]

Police state!

--A