10 Most Harmful Books of the 19th, 20th C.

I can't believe none of the "Curious George" books made the list.

That was a bad, bad monkey.

The al-qaeda terror handbook was not #1, therefore, it isn't really a valid list...

The Kinsey Report?
Origin of the Species?

i saw part of an interview as well. can't remember the guy's name either.

he claimed that he wasn't advocating the banning or burning of these books, but i think we all know what the implications of the list are.

joe -- I wonder if Curious is yellow or whether he's Michael Jackson's monkey.

Plainoldme - why did you sense imminent danger?

Sanctuary -- I am puzzled by the danger the Kinsey Reports poses. After all, Republicans and conservative Christians like sex. My brother had an experience with a theatre group from a conservative Baptist Church: everyone was sleeping with someone else's spouse! I was once verbally flayed on a forum -- so long ago that I can't remember whether it was here or on abuzz -- for daring to present my own experience with conservative men as aggressive.

I think follow up questions should include: Have you read any of these books? If yes, how did this book change your life?

Don't tread -- This program was broadcast locally on WBUR, 90.9, at around 1 on Sunday, under the omnibus title, "On Media." Perhaps, it aired at another time in your market. A transcript of the show is available from WBUR.

When I was growing up, we were encouraged to read some of these books by our teachers in order to help develop our thinking. The secondary motive of the teachers was to steer us towards good works, a good conscience and a true Christian outlook. I often wondered about conservatives. Didn't they read some of these same works in school. I suggested that my generation (b. 1947) was drawn by our teachers in what may be considered the liberal direction by what we read. Posting something of that nature on abuzz, a rightie informed me that he had been given nothing of the sort to read.

Dewey, Mills, Marx, Keynes, Lenin and Freud did much to shape the 20th C. To burn their books, as you rightly see as the course of the humaneventsonline. com group, would leave a large hole in our knowledge of human history.

just wonders -- I sense danger for two reasons: 1.) These people are out to re-write history; 2.) They disregard some of the primary doctrines that allow them to speak up today, like Mills' On Liberty.

I completely agree, Plain. Shame, no?

sanctuary -- I never read Kinsey but I bet he's boring!

I must have missed it then. From reading the above, it appears that some conservatives were asked an opinion.

I see nothing that purports any suggestion of a) banning, b) burning, or c) rewriting history.

"Decent of Man" and "Origin of the Species" by Darwin? The Kinsey report? These are on the list of "The most harmful books of the 19th/20th century?

Whoever compiled this list must have a problem getting the feces out of their hair, what with their head shoved so deeply up their ass like that.

the list was compiled by judges who are representatives of conservative and fundamental christian think tanks.

just more of the same razzle dazzle. they have the right to say what ever they want, and we have the right to agree or not.

i don't... :wink:

We also have the right to laugh uproariously, slap our thighs, hold our sides, and walk off wiping the tears from our eyes.

When books are outlawed, the literate become outlaws--so, no problem for the Christian Right, Inc.

reminds one of Will Durants observations.

somehow i get the impression that you really don't understand just how much our society is threatened by sex loving freaks like the kinseys...

My list of the ten most harmful books:

1. THE BIBLE
Author: God
Date of Publication: 1st century A.D.
Summary: If God really wrote this book, he definitely needed an editor. Few books have packed so much incomprehensible nonsense into such a small compass. But the most harmful aspect of the bible is that people have actually been gulled into believing it.

2. THE KORAN
Author: Allah
Date of Publication: c. 652 A.D.
Summary: See above.

3. THE FOUNTAINHEAD
Author: Ayn Rand
Date of Publication: 1943
Summary: Rand's so-called "philosophy" of objectivism led generations of idealistic-yet-credulous followers to think that selfishness was not only good but a duty.

4. FREE TO CHOOSE
Author: Milton Friedman
Date of Publication: 1980
Summary: Friedman's simplistic nostrum that we are "free to choose in a free market society" taught people two great untruths: that we are free to choose and that we can live in a free market society.

5. THE ARCHEOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE
Author: Michel Foucault
Date of Publication: 1972
Summary: Mixed-up Nietzscheism coupled with incomprehensible jargon gave rise to the bane of modern civilization: "post-modernism."

6. THE AMBASSADORS
Author: Henry James
Date of Publication: 1903
Summary: OK, this isn't harmful. I just don't like it.

7. MICROSOFT WINDOWS USER'S MANUAL
Author: Satan
Date of Publication: 1995
Summary: Need I say more?

8. THE JOY OF SEX
Author: Alex Comfort
Date of Publication: 1972
Summary: The only book dedicated to sex where the illustrations were the worst part. I mean, really, who wants to see some unshaven hippies engaged in unspeakable sex acts?

9. ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN
Authors: Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
Date of Publication: 1974
Summary: The book that made every reporter think that he or she had to bring down a president in order to be a great journalist.

10. THE COMMON SENSE BOOK OF BABY AND CHILD CARE
Author: Benjamin Spock
Date of Publication: 1946
Summary: The book that coddled baby boomers into becoming a nation of self-absorbed, whiny navel-gazers.

John Stuart Mill and Ralph Nader more harmful than the Anarchist's Cookbook? the panelists who selected these books obviously don't belong to the reality-based community.