The Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Century!

This list has been getting a lot of attention!

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=7591

It is just absolutely mind-boggling. The honorable mention list is even crazier.... "Unsafe at Any Speed" by Ralph Nader?!?!?

In my mind I can only think of 3 books that are completely and directly connected with true harm, meaning mass slaughter, and not just propaganda... one of them is on the list (Mao's Red Book, Cultural Revolution) and the other two are the Bible and the Koran.

 

I am glad to see a list of "banned books" come out; doubtless it will stimulate interest in actually READING them. There's some important stuff on this list.

 

Darwin's Descent of Man and Origin of the Species are also honourable mentions.

But then again

Is their inclusion too surprising?

 

I think my undergraduate university may have been an unfortunate influence. I had to read six of them as compulsory texts in my history and politics degree. This could explain why I turned out a screaming liberal ;-)

Angela

 

I'm surprised that books by Bertrand Russell were excluded from this list. Russell's ideas on sex, marraige, religion, and education are regarded by many conservatives as harmful.

 

I am shocked. "The Terrorist Cookbook" did not even get Honorable Mention.

 

Or "1001 Ways to Kill a Cat." What the heck kind of list is this? [grin]

 

Keynes??? Maybe to supply-side, conservative kooks this is anathema.

The full title shoud be:

"The Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Century (if you're an old, white, conservative capatalist, clinging deperately to your dwindling power base, and hoping beyond hope that you can continue raping the earth, subjugating women, and propagating crank economic theories to preserve your cash flow)".

 

Tom57:

You left out, "superstitious, intellectually dishonest, and morally blind".

 

Tom57:

You left out, "and enjoy driving poorly designed cars with gas tanks that randomly explode".

 

Yet another nothing list. I see them all the time on MSN.com. Anyone can make a list - but it doesn't mean much.

(such as the list of sexiest women in the world - gee, shouldn't it really say "the sexiest women in the entertainment industry")

 

Oh, yeah, but SOME lists are more FUN than others!

 

Great Books

Mortimer Adler, and company, selected at least four of these authors for the Great Books of the Western World.

Interestingly, another , John Dewey, was not included in the set. However, Robert M. Hutchins used the entire second chapter of the introductory volume to discuss Dewey's educational philosophy.

 

Well, I cannot agree with Dewey and Comte being in the top ten.

I cannot agree with Meade, Mill, Skinner, Nader, and Carson being on the honorable list mention.

 

ok, as a slightly more serious list of books, how about the UC Berkeley Summer Reading List from this year and past years (I know, I know, just a bunch of Commie liberals).

http://reading.berkeley.edu/

The list theme from 2002 was banned books:

Song of Solomon
Toni Morrison

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain

The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood

The Color Purple
Alice Walker

To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee

Beloved
Toni Morrison

The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger

The House of the Spirits
Isabel Allende

Brave New World
Aldous Huxley

Lord of the Flies
William Golding

Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut

 

I'm glad its only in your mind, qvatanta........

 

That's only because you are a student at the ultra-left and liberal Foley-Belsaw Institute, Jimmy..........

 

Some books may actually kill you

Apparently some books can literally kill you.

I read a UK newspaper about the spread of diseases in hospitals, and fingers are being pointed at bedside bibles, circulating newspapers, and hospital library books. A quick search on the Interner brings up the discussion.

Here is one site http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/may/05051607.html
The UK newspaper recommended that patients bring their own reading material and toss when finisihed.

Sounds like a wise precaution to me.

 

Re: Re: The Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Century!

It's pretty simple, I just thought, "what books have inspired so much protectiveness as physical objects (nothing to do even with the actual contents) that the mere rumor someone had insulted them was enough to send a large group of people into a homicidal rage?"

It also reminds me of a great popular anecdote about the first meeting between the Inca Emperor Atahualpa and the conquistadors led by Pizarro. When they met, a priest offered Atahualpa a Bible and got across to him that this book contained amazing wisdom. Atahualpa, unfamiliar with the concept of a book, held it to his ear, but when it didn't make any sounds he threw it to the ground, at which point the conquistadors started slaughtering the Incas.

 

Was that "The Terrorist Cookbook" or "The Anarchist Cookbook"?