"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. "
1. The Communist Manifesto - by Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels
2. Mein Kampf - by Adolf Hitler
3. Quotations from Chairman Mao - by Mao Zedong
Okay, the first three, I can understand - Communist Manifesto, Mein Kampf and Quotations from Chairman Mao. Though I don't think The Manifesto is all that bad. I think Marx's criticisms of capitalism is pretty on target. I just don't agree with his cure.
I was scared when this group put The Kinsey Report as #4. This book has probably helped us understand sexuality more than any other book in the 20th century!
And then #5 - Democracy and Education by John Dewey. Don't know of this book, but according to the weekly, it "disparaged schooling that focused on traditional character development and endowing children with hard knowledge, and encouraged the teaching of thinking 'skills' instead." Good Lord! Let's not teach our kids any thinking skills. They might become liberals! And start a neoconservative movement!
As for #6 - Das Kapital by Karl Marx - like I said, great criticism, horrible idea how to fix things! (Here's my imitation of Karl Marx - *holding cigar up to my mouth* - "I shot an elephant while writing Das Kapital! Why it was writing Das Kapital, I'll never know!"
#7. The Feminist Mystique by Betty Friedman. From what I hear, this book may have gone a little overboard, but I guess we all know all women should be trapped in their homes!
#8. The Course of Positive Philosophy by Auguste Comte. I never heard of this book. The weekly really does not say anything about the particular book, just about the writer. So I have no idea what is wrong with this particular book in their eyes.
The writer is apparently a problem because he's a ex-Catholic who turned his back on religion. Having been raised Catholic, I guess I'll have to check this guy out some time!
#9 Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Neitzche. I don't know Neitzsche very well. But it always sounds to me like Neitzche is an extreme realist and pragmatist. Don't agree with him, but I can see where he's coming from - IF I'm understanding him correctly, which is a big IF with Neitzsche!
#10. General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes. I won't pretend to know much about economics. I can spend within my limits, but that's pretty much the end of my skills economically speaking. I've heard of Keynes, but don't really know much about him or his ideas.
According to the weekly, "The book is a recipe for ever-expanding government. When the business cycle threatens a contraction of industry, and thus of jobs, he argued, the government should run up deficits, borrowing and spending money to spur economic activity. 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."
Well, it seems to me, that FDR's programs helped people through The Depression. And it also seems to me that Clinton had our budget almost balanced, and the recent balooning came with our current president!
As for the honorable mentions -
The Population Bomb by Paul Ehrlich might have been off in its scale of the problem, but let's face it - there'd be a lot less pollution and hunger if there were fewer people on this planet!
B.F. Skinner's Beyond Freedom and Dignity? I have to admit it's been 20 years since I read it. I have it in one of my five boxes of books and could dig it out, but that would be too much work for a blog I don't even get paid to write for. But from what I remember of the late Dr. Skinner, he provided some ideas of things we should do if we were to have a democracy. And I believe he was more of a determinist kind of guy.
Don't remember any of the ideas he suggested, but like most of Skinner's ideas, I remember finding them interesting and worth thinking about if not worth doing. I don't remember the ideas in and of themselves being dangerous. But using them could be dangerous, if I could remember what they were. I just don't remember being scared by them.
Two books by Darwin! The Origin of Species and Descent of Man. Well, we are know why these are here, so what more needs to be said?
And that nasty Ralph Nader - Unsafe at Any Speed - trying to make cars safer, instead of letting the car manufacturers make deathtraps any way they want!
And Freud's Introduction to Psychoanalysis? Okay, I think Freud in a lot of ways is full of bunk. But without him, there would be no psychology. And psychology and psychotherapy has helped a lot of people. I wouldn't want to have been dumped in the kind of treatment insane people were given in Freud's time. I don't think it would have helped me after my episode!
You know, now that some ultraconservative thinktankers and academics made their list, it's time to get some ultraliberal to do the same thing. Well, fellow liberals, any suggestions for what you think are the 10 most harmful books of the 19th and 20th centuries?
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