From: dlaibman@JJAY.CUNY.EDU
Date: Thu Jun 02 2005 - 17:51:15 EDT
I have just one question. How come there are no books by OPE members on this list. We must be slipping!!! David (Laibman) ----- Original Message ----- From: Paul Cockshott <wpc@DCS.GLA.AC.UK> Date: Thursday, June 2, 2005 5:29 pm Subject: Re: [OPE-L] Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries > I note that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion does not make it > > -----Original Message----- > From: OPE-L on behalf of glevy@PRATT.EDU > Sent: Thu 6/2/2005 1:58 PM > To: OPE-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU > Subject: [OPE-L] Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries > > I saw the link to this article in the PEN-L archives. This story > was published in the reactionary magazine, HUMAN EVENTS. The voting > was done by a 'distinguished' panel of conservatives (listed at end > of article). > > Summary: > > 1. _The Communist Manifesto_ > 2. _Mein Kampf_ > 3. _Quotations from Chairman Mao_ > 4. _The Kinsey Report_ > 5. _Democracy and Education_ by John Dewey > 6. _Das Kapital_ > 7. _The Feminine Mystique_ by Betty Friedan > 8. _The Course of Positive Philosophy_ by Auguste Comte > 9. _Beyond Good and Evil_ by Freidrich Nietzsche > 10. _The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money_ > > There is also a listing of books getting an 'Honorable Mention' > near the end of the article. > > Any surprises here? > > In solidarity, Jerry > > > > Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries > > > HUMAN EVENTS asked a panel of 15 conservative scholars and public > policyleaders 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 Authors : Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels > Publication date : 1848 Score : 74 Summary : Marx and Engels, > born in > Germany in 1818 and 1820, respectively, were the intellectual > godfathersof communism. Engels was the original limousine leftist: > A wealthy textile > heir, he financed Marx for much of his life. In 1848, the two co- > authored The Communist Manifesto as a platform for a group they > belonged to > calle! d the Communist League. The Manifesto envisions history as > a class > struggle between oppressed workers and oppressive owners, calling > for a > workers’ revolution so property, family and nation-states > can be > abolished and a proletarian Utopia established. The Evil Empire of the > Soviet Union put the Manifesto into practice. > > 2. Mein Kampf Author : Adolf Hitler Publication date : 1925-26 > Score : > 41 Summary : Mein Kampf (My Struggle) was initially published > in two > parts in 1925 and 1926 after Hitler was imprisoned for leading > Nazi Brown > Shirts in the so-called “Beer Hall Putsch” that tried to > overthrow the Bavarian government. Here Hitler explained his racist, > anti-Semitic vision for Germany, laying out a Nazi program pointing > directly to World War II and the Holocaust. He envisioned the mass > murderof Jews, and a war against France to precede a war against > Russia to carve > out “lebensraum” (“living room”) for > Germans in! > Eastern Europe. The book was originally ignored. But not after Hitler > rose to power. According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, there > were 10 > million copies in circulation by 1945. > > 3. Quotations from Chairman Mao Author : Mao Zedong Publication > date : > 1966 Score : 38 Summary : Mao, who died in 1976, was the leader > of the > Red Army in the fight for control of China against the anti-Communist > forces of Chiang Kai-shek before, during and after World War II. > Victorious, in 1949, he founded the People’s Republic of China, > enslaving the world’s most populous nation in communism. In > 1966, he > published Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong , otherwise known > as The > Little Red Book , as a tool in the “Cultural > Revolution” he > launched to push the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese society > back in > his ideological direction. Aided by compulsory distribution in China, > billions were printed. Western leftists were enamored with its Marxist > anti-Americanism. “It is the task of the people of the whole > worldto pu! t an end to the aggression and oppression perpetrated by > imperialism, and chiefly by U.S. imperialism,” wrote Mao. > > 4. The Kinsey Report Author : Alfred Kinsey Publication date : > 1948Score : 37 Summary : Alfred Kinsey was a zoologist at Indiana > Universitywho, in 1948, published a study called Sexual Behavior > in the Human Male > , commonly known as The Kinsey Report . Five years later, he > published Sexual Behavior in the Human Female . The reports were > designed to give a > scientific gloss to the normalization of promiscuity and deviancy. > “Kinsey’s initial report, released in 1948 . . . > stunned the > nation by saying that American men were so sexually wild that 95% > of them > could be accused of some kind of sexual offense under 1940s > laws,”the Washington Times reported last year when a movie > on Kinsey was > released. “The report included reports of sexual activity by > boys--even babies--and said that 37% of adult males had had a! t > least one > homosexual experience. . . . The 1953 book also included reports > of sexual > activity involving girls younger than age 4, and suggested that sex > between adults and children could be beneficial.” > > 5. Democracy and Education Author : John Dewey Publication > date : > 1916 Score : 36 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 > Chicagoand at Columbia. He signed the Humanist Manifesto and > rejectedtraditional 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 > Clintongeneration. > > 6. Das Kapital Author : Karl Marx Publication date : > 1867-1894 > Score : 31 Summary : Marx died after publishing a first volume > of this > massive book, after which his benefactor Engels edited and > published two > additional volumes that Marx had drafted. Das Kapital forces > the round > peg of capitalism into the square hole of Marx’s materialistic > theory of history, portraying capitalism as an ugly phase in the > development of human society in which capitalists inevitably and > amorallyexploit labor by paying the cheapest possible wages to > earn the greatest > possible profits. Marx theorized that the inevitable eventual outcome > would be global proletarian revolution. He could not have > predicted 21st > Century America: a free, affluent society based on capitalism and > representative government that people the world over envy and seek to > emulate. > > 7. The Feminine Mystique Author : Betty Friedan > Publication date > : 1963 Score : 30 Summary : In The Feminine Mystique , Betty > Friedan,born in 1921, disparaged traditional stay-at-home > motherhood as life in > “a comfortable concentration camp”--a role that degraded > women and denied them true fulfillment in life. She later became > foundingpresident of the National Organization for Women. Her > original vocation, > tellingly, was not stay-at-home motherhood but left-wing > journalism. As > David Horowitz wrote in a review for Salon.com of Betty Friedan > and the > Making of the Feminine Mystique by Daniel Horowitz (no relation to > David): The author documents that “Friedan was from her college > days, and until her mid-30s, a Stalinist Marxist, the political > intimateof the leaders of America’s Cold War fifth column > and for a time > even the lover of a young Communist physicist working on atomic bomb > projects in Berkeley’s radiation lab with J. Robert > Oppenheimer.” 8. The Course of Positive Philosophy > Author : Auguste Comte Publication date : 1830-1842 Score : 28 > Summary: Comte, the product of a royalist Catholic family that > survived the > French Revolution, turned! > his back on his political and cultural heritage, announcing as a > teenager, “I have naturally ceased to believe in God.” > Later, in the six volumes of The Course of Positive Philosophy > , he > coined the term “sociology.” He did so while > theorizing that > the human mind had developed beyond “theology” (a belief > that there is a God who governs the universe), through > “metaphysics” (in this case defined as the French > revolutionaries’ reliance on abstract assertions of > “rights” without a God), to “positivism,” in > which man alone, through scientific observation, could determine > the way > things ought to be. > > 9. Beyond Good and Evil Author : Freidrich Nietzsche > Publication date : > 1886 Score : 28 Summary : An oft-scribbled bit of college-campus > graffiti says: “‘God is dead’--Nietzsche” > followedby “‘Nietzsche is dead’--God.” > Nietzsche’sprof! > ession that “God is dead” appeared in his 1882 book, The > Gay Science , but under-girded the basic theme of Beyond Good > and Evil > , which was published four years later. Here Nietzsche argued that > men are > driven by an amoral “Will to Power,” and that superior men > will sweep aside religiously inspired moral rules, which he deemed as > artificial as any other moral rules, to craft whatever rules would > helpthem dominate the world around them. “Life itself is > essentiallyappropriation, injury, overpowering of the strange and > weaker,suppression, severity, imposition of one’s own forms, > incorporationand, at the least and mildest, exploitation,” > he wrote. The Nazis > loved Nietzsche. > > 10. General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money Author : John > Maynard Keynes Publication date : 1936 Score : 23 Summary : > Keynes was > a member of the British elite--educated at Eton and Cambridge--who > as a > liberal Cambridge economics professor wrote General Theory of > Employment, Interest and Money in the mid! > st of the Great Depression. 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. > > Honorable Mention These books won votes from two or more judges: > The > Population Bomb by Paul Ehrlich Score: 22 What Is To Be > Done by > V.I. Lenin Score: 20 Authoritarian Personality by Theodor > Adorno Score: 19 On Liberty by John Stuart Mill > Score: 18 Beyond Freedom and Dignity by B.F. Skinner Score: > 18 Reflections on Violence by Georges Sorel Score: 18 > The Promise of American Life by Herbert Croly Score: 17 > Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin Score: 17 Madness > and Civilization ! > by Michel Foucault Score: 12 Soviet Communism: A ! > New Civi > lization by Sidney and Beatrice Webb Score: 12 Coming of Age > in Samoa by Margaret Mead Score: 11 Unsafe at Any Speed by > Ralph Nader Score: 11 Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir > Score: 10 Prison Notebooks by Antonio Gramsci Score: 10 > Silent Spring by Rachel Carson Score: 9 Wretched of the > Earth by Frantz Fanon Score: 9 Introduction to > Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud Score: 9 The Greening of > America by Charles Reich Score: 9 The Limits to Growth by > Club of Rome Score: 4 Descent of Man by Charles Darwin > Score: 2 The Judges These 15 scholars and public policy > leadersserved as judges in selecting the Ten Most Harmful Books. > Arnold > Beichman Research Fellow Hoover Institution Prof. Brad Birzer > Hillsdale College Harry Crocker Vice President & Executive > EditorRegnery Publishing, Inc. Prof. Marshall DeRosa Florida! > Atlantic University Dr. Don Devine Second Vice Chairman American > Conservative Union Prof. Robert George Princeton University Prof. > Paul Gottfried Elizabethtown College Prof. William Anthony Hay > Mississippi State University Herb London President Hudson > Institute Prof. Mark Malvasi Randolph-Macon College Douglas > Minson Associate > Rector The Witherspoon Fellowships Prof. Mark Molesky Seton Hall > University Prof. Stephen Presser Northwestern University Phyllis > Schlafly President Eagle Forum Fred Smith President Competitive > Enterprise Institute > > ----------- > Read more articles like this at HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE! > http://www.humaneventsonline.com/ > > > ----------------------------------------------------- > This email has been automatically scanned for viruses. > However, it might still contain undetectable virus(es). > Addressee should take precautions in opening any unsolicited emails. > -- DoIT, John Jay College of Criminal Justice -1- > >
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