The 10 most "harmful" books of the 19th and 20th century.

[bhunt70]

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

nice list, I assume they had to use flash cards to remember the authors and titles.

[GRLMGC]

1. ahahaha

I've had to read most of those authors in school. Gramsci and Adorno make good points and, no, I'm not a Marxist.

[Lori Price CLG]

3. OMG, Adorno *rocks!* n/t

[rwenos]

2. As if any of those pricks had actually READ any of them.

I taught the Communist Manifesto as a piece of propagandistic bullshit when I was a graduate student 30 years ago.

It's still bullshit -- but I had to read it to find out, eh? And then I could teach others to recognize the bullshit.

Dr. Henry Jones, Sr.: ". . . so goose-stepping morons could spend some time reading books instead of burning them."

[gmoney]

4. The left out the Bible, Koran, Torah, Book of Mormon, Dianetics, etc...

I know most of those books predate the 19th and 20th Century, but they continue to harm countless millions and endanger the entire population of the world.

Some asshat from Regnery on the "panel"... 'nuff said.

I think this will be my new reading list for the summer. Thanks for the link.

[bhunt70]

7. I'm gonna pick up the ones I dont have and read/re-read them also.

...

[rwenos]

5. What about "The Turner Diaries"?

The handbook for fertilizer explosives and bombing FBI buildings used by Tim McVeigh?

Odd THAT's not on the list, eh?

Or how about "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion"?

Shewwt, that's pleasure reading! </sarcasm>

[The_Casual_Observer]

6. As they say, books don't harm people, people harm people

Oh, that only applies to guns...

[smartvoter]

8. You said it!!! nt

[fujiyama]

9. It's funny that they have Silent Spring

as an honorable mention.

I guess conservatives don't breathe air and drink water. :eyes:

Stupid motherfuckers.

[Art_from_Ark]

17. Incredible, isn't it?

Maybe the person who listed Silent Spring had had a big investment in a DDT company.

[NAO]

10. Do the dozens (hundreds?) of "Left Behind" Rapture Books count as 1

or would they each have to be given their own spot?

How about the books of "Dr." James Dobson (the Fanatical Extremest Radical Cleric who issued a Fatwa on SpongeBob Square Pants). His first book (that I can remember) was back in the early 80's at it was titled something like "Beat the Crap out of you Kids, In the Name of the Lord". He has since written dozens of books on spanking, whipping, paddling, and various other methods of inflicting physical pain on children.

These books by religious nut-jobs have done far more harm to society than the lofty titles both good and evil mentioned in this list. For one thing - and this is very sad to contemplate - the fundie wingnut books outsell the lofty titles of good and evil and are much more widely read.

[Lithos]

11. Bah

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion... Has aided in the cause of those who put to death many millions of people. It also has served as a template for rhetoric used to promote a hateful agenda of genocide and subjugation.

L-

[rwenos]

12. Exactly My Point

I do hope you picked up on my disgust. . . .

[Lithos]

15. I did get it

There are so many books which in the hands of hateful people have caused grievous harm to the human condition. These people in their ivory towers of self-importance have with only a few exceptions, generally cited only books contrary to their ideological stance. They will never admit that their own ideologues have crafted equally destructive books.

What about The Bell Curve, or any of Margaret Mead's debunked Coming of Age in Samoa (eugenics), or any of Ayn Rand's dreck?

Or if you are talking about tools used to spread hate, then you have The Phantom Public by Walter Lippmann written in the 1920's and which has served as the guide for Conservative PR strategies. Also the pair of seminal tomes, Engineering of Consent and Propaganda by Bernays.

L-

[longship]

13. "None Dare Call It Treason"

Before Coulter's Treason there were two books which helped found the extremist right wing movement of today. Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative (1960) and None Dare Call It Treason by John A Stormer (1964) set the tone for the next three decade's conservative movement. The former came from the political mainstream, from a respected Arizona Senator. I have no bones to pick about that one.

The latter, however, is a different story. Actively promoted by the John Birch Society, a racist, ultra right wing collection of kooks, None Dare Call It Treason is a poorly written screed which scapegoats all the world's ills on communism and the UN. I remember billboards paid for by the local John Birch Society chapters featuring large American Flags and reading Get US out of the UN. It was laughable forty years ago; nobody took it seriously. Unfortunately, the ridiculous extremists trumpeting that horrible screed are precisely the same lunatics in power now. It's no longer a laughing matter.

So I nominate Stormer's None Dare Call It Treason as one of the most harmful books of the 20th century.

[MrPrax]

14. The Judges?

I am glad I never went to any of those universities--YIKES!

My prof once said in class, 'you go to university to read things you disagree with, not simply get credit for books you do--it's called education, indoctrination'

But in all honesty, I got more critical ideas from reading Keynes and Fanon than I ever did reading Popper or Huntington--

On Topic: 'Scofield' Bible would be my selection for harmful; not to mention other propaganda works like You Can The Trust The Communists or Go Ask Alice

[LuPeRcALiO]

16. you'd think they'd have Grammatology on there

or maybe they couldn't get through it either.

Betty Friedan is #7 and Simone de Beauvoir gets an honorable mention?

:shrug:

[NMMNG]

18. Well, my "to be read" list just got longer

These people are a bunch of freaks with closed minds.

A closed mind is a wonderful thing to waste.