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

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

[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.

[newheart]

Personally I would place Origin of the Species at number 1. Certainly neither Marx, nor Hitler's books would have had the philosophical underpinnings they did except for Darwin's efforts.

Although the story has not been proved to be true, I have even heard something to the effect that Marx wanted to dedicate Das Kapital to Darwin but Darwin declined. Even if apocryphal, it would fit. We do know that Marx greatly admired Darwin and without question the notion of dialectical materialism could only arise in a milieu which readily accepted the logical consequences of Darwinian naturalism.

And by the way, lest we forget, the full title is: "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life."

[inquest]

Those other ones aren't all that surprising from a conservative standpoint. But I always thought of J.S. Mill as being one of the primary spokesmen for classical liberalism (=modern economic and political conservatism).

[Right Wing Professor]

Personally I would place Origin of the Species at number 1

All this hatred for a biological theory.

[seowulf]

Kant wasn't 19th or 20th century. Besides, I think Rousseau (not the right period either) was the more responsible for modern European (so-called) liberalism.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

[Cicero]

A good list. I agree that every book on this list was harmful.

Perhaps my biggest disagreement concerns the placement of Hitler's Mein Kampf. There's no doubt that Hitler was one of the biggest troublemakers of the 20th century, and that he belongs right up there with Stalin and Mao, but I don't think Mein Kampf was ever very widely influential in intellectual circles. I can never remember a time when it was not universally hated and deplored. And I don't know that it had that big effect in Nazi Germany, either. It was Hitler's speeches and organized events that did the damage, not Mein Kampf. So, maybe it belongs on the list, but not way up there at number 2.

I would add Edward Said, Orientalism; Martin Heidegger, various works; and Friedrich Nietzche, Also Sprach Zarathustra.

[Protagoras]

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

BUMP

[Voir Dire]

Excellent choice for the next list (daddy's roomate)

[blueblazes]

I dunno about Mein Kampf - it's very hard to read as it's...crazy - however, it does appear to be the blueprint for what Hitler actually ended up doing. I'd keep it on the list for that reason myself.

[stuartcr]

Got that right...

[Tempestuous]

Fast forward 10 years and the Koran will be in the top 5...guaranteed.

[inquest]

It could be that Mill justified an empire if it was benevolent and well meaning (the British Empire, e.g.), if it brought classical liberalism to the backward civilizations of the world.

That's odd. I could see condemning that if it were a liberal's list of harmful books. But for conservative scholars to react that way? Tough for me to visualize. (I'm not saying you're wrong, though)

[SkyPilot]

All this hatred for a biological theory.

Oh, I didn't know we were going to use the "hate" lable to broad brush anyone who disagrees with that theory...we jumped that line pretty early today.

[BikerNYC]

Books are good. Even bad books are good.

[stuartcr]

19/20th century???

[jtminton]

Yep.

[Skooz]

Disagreement = Hate in some circles.

[newheart]

You are right about Kant except that his Critique of Pure Reason was published in the 18th century, 1781 to be exact.

[Skooz]

Disagreement = Hate in some circles.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Whom did "Our Plan for America" harm? Did a truckload of them hit a schoolbus? If a book falls in the forest and no one reads it, did it do any harm?