“Ten most harmful books of the 19th & 20th centuries”

The “conservative” weekly Human Events asked a panel of 15 conservative scholars and public policy leaders to help them compile a list of the Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th & 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,” according to the editors, The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, earned the highest aggregate score and the No. 1 listing. Marx was the only author to have 2 entries, with Das Kapital at No. 6.

John Dewey’s Democracy and Education checked in at No. 5. Here’s the summary of Dewey’s most important work provided by the editors of Human Events

Summary: John Dewey, who lived from 1859 until 1952, was a “progressive” philosopher and leading advocate for secular humanism in American life, who taught at the University of Chicago and at Columbia. He signed the Humanist Manifesto and rejected traditional religion and moral absolutes. In Democracy and Education, in pompous and opaque prose, he disparaged schooling that focused on traditional character development and endowing children with hard knowledge, and encouraged the teaching of thinking “skills” instead. His views had great influence on the direction of American education–particularly in public schools–and helped nurture the Clinton generation.”

The balance of the list includes Hitler’s Mein Kampf (No. 2), Quotations from Chairman Mao (No. 3), and The Kinsey Report (No. 4).

Rounding out the top ten are: Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, Comte’s The Course of Positive Philosophy, Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, Keynes’ The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money.

The link above will take you to the full list, including “summaries” and a run down of the panel.

In an effort to preserve free enterprise against the assualt of Top Ten (and honorable mention) books by Marx, Engels, Mao, and Lenin, Human Events has convienently provided links to Amazon.com for each title for your consuming pleasure (or perhaps to facilitate local book burnings).

(Thanks to DG for the tip on this list, I’ll have to remember to send him a gift subscription to Human Events for his next birthday.)

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