Posted on 05/31/2005 8:48:47 AM PDT by hinterlander
HUMAN EVENTS asked a panel of 15 conservative scholars and public policy leaders to help us compile a list of the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Each panelist nominated a number of titles and then voted on a ballot including all books nominated. A title received a score of 10 points for being listed No. 1 by one of our panelists, 9 points for being listed No. 2, etc. Appropriately, The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, earned the highest aggregate score and the No. 1 listing.
(Excerpt) Read more at humaneventsonline.com ...
I would have put Darwin #1.
Great list. I'd have moved Keynes up a couple of notches on the list, but then I've also been blasted by Freepers who think Keynes was a good economist. All in all, I'm glad I stand with Human Events on the matter.
Years ago I tried to read them, out of morbid curiosity, and couldn't get half way through either one. Both were B-O-R-I-N-G, badly written, and turgid beyond belief.
It's been remarked that most Germans had the obligatory coffee table copy of "Mein Kampf" during the Nazi years, but nobody ever actually read it, and it would be interesting to know how many communists have ever read "The Communist Manifesto".
Is the Koran listed?
No, but I bet liberals would include the Bible in their top ten.
Ironically, you're likely to be flamed by people who themselves give repeated evidence to the validity of your observation.
I read through the entire communist manifesto for an economics class. The opportunity to then debate and berate the class's avowed communist made it worth the read, but then that was the only thing that made it worth the read.
Even Hitler said if he knew he was going to be as successful as he was he would never have written the book.
Not too bad a list. My tops would be Madness and Civilization which allows mopes of every political stripe the opportunity to deconstruct any discourse. Once you have eliminated 'agreement or covenants of any kind' you are free to practice any smear on understanding. Foucault and his disciples have devalued conversation ( Ward Churchill and Rush Limbaugh e.g.).
Heh Heh...
Point taken. I think the only negative impact was for the poor trees that had the grave misfortune to be the ultimate recipients of that dreck... and perhaps a few Barnes & Noble employees crushed under stacks of unsold books.
That Idol-Worshipping Dan Brown certainly has been VERY harmful to the Way, The Truth & the Life.
Why is that on the list?
Numero Uno should have been "The origin of species by means of natural selection: The preservation of favored races in the struggle for life" by Charles Darwin. All the others depend on that one. Also Mein Kampf does not belong on the list in my view since naziism would have happened with or without the one goof book. I can't picture any German ever having been converted to naziism by reading Mein Kampf; you either liked naziism or you didn't.
btt
"Baby and Chidcare Book" by Benjamin Spock.
It should rate at least 3rd. The handbook for the end of discipline and the word "No".
the sad thing is that a lot of these books constitute parts of the core curriculem of many colleges.
Wouldn't that be the 21st Century?
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