Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

Human Events Online ^ | May 31, 2005 | Human Events

[Bernard Marx]

Also "Silent Spring" should be on the list.

It is but it should be placed higher. It could take the place of Darwin's books which should not be listed at all.

[CarolinaGuitarman]

Communism and socialism predates Darwin. Eugenics was not related to evolution; the discovery of the mechanism of inheritance after 1900 was what made eugenics into a *viable* movement. Eugenics crossed all divisions of political ideology and religion. As for the Nazis, they were too stupid to have read Darwin. All they did was grab onto slogans they couldn't understand.

[Dinsdale]

The Bible (in all versions) can NEVER be a Destructive/Harmful or Evil-Inducing work!

Not a student of history are you?

[SittinYonder]

I was nearly disembowled on a thread of Keynes defenders. It all got put right, though, when one of them accused von Mises of being in favor of trade tariffs and then finally back-tracked and said he was confused about who he was talking about.

[WKUHilltopper]

"Out of curiosity, has anyone here ever managed to read through either "The Communist Manifesto" or "Mein Kampf"? "

I had to read the Commie Manifesto and Mein Kampf as a class assignment in High School. Both were incredibly boring. I don't recall if I were able to get through the entire books. But I do remember it was insightful from the stand point Marx and Hitler outlined and fully disclosed their evil deeds and ideas. It left no doubt of their intentions...

[Billthedrill]

Agree completely on the Foucault. His work is as pernicious as anything on the list. I'd have thrown a couple more PoMo's in there - a Derrida, perhaps. Taken as themselves they really aren't much more than intellectual curiosities; taken for the harm they've caused they're intellectual sludge landmines.

I'd also throw in Against Our Will by Susan Brownmiller. Feminism was still teetering toward moderation and respectability when that hate-filled little abscess was published. It has been likened to Mein Kampf for a couple of reasons, principally that although insignificant enough in itself it provided a focus for hatred among a hate-prone population and a ready-made scapegoat on which to focus.

[monday]

"Harmful books? No. No harmful books. Harmful people."

Books are just a medium for transmitting ideas. Books are not harmful but the ideas in some are. Socialism, Fascism, and Islam are all ideas whose founders have caused most of the suffering and death in the world.

If you like, think of the ideas in some books as diseases, while the books used to transmit those diseases are the inoculation needles.

Some books carry cures, others carry death and destruction.

[RansomOttawa]

All this hatred for a biological theory.

"Darwinism" didn't stay in the realm of biology. The name was misappropriated for various "social Darwinist" theories. If ideas have consequences, Charles Darwin has much to answer for.

[WKUHilltopper]

"Wow!

Is that really a childrens book?"

Yes. Yes it is. Incredible, ain't it.

[Dinsdale]

So Darwin is responsible for those who misinterperet his theorys.

Tell my why the bibles authors are'nt responsible for those who misinterperet that book.

[Radioactive]

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[PJ-Comix]

How can Das Kapital be harmful if NOBODY can understand it? I took a look at it. An incomprehensible BORE!

[Excellence]

Ping for later viewing.

[Radioactive]

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[azcap]

That must be the Hardcover list. My guess is that Noam Chomsky has 5 of the top 10 on the comic book list.

[Dacus943]

How about Leaves of Grass - by Walt Whitman? ;>

[sauropod]

I'd have to put Putting People First by Bill Clinton and Al Gore on that list.

[mc5cents]

One other book that deserves and honorable mention is:
Rules for Radicals
Saul Alinsky
Publication date: 1966

Ah yes. Hillary's bible.

[monday]

"Silent Spring should've made the top ten."

Yes, an argument could be made that it is the biggest killer of them all. Millions of people have died of malaria since the banning of DDT. Before that malaria had been almost wiped out in India and South America.

[KC_Conspirator]

That is correct.