The Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

[JesusFightClub]

I own five of the books there and have read two others.

And while I have read the Turner Diaries I would NEVER recommend banning it, horrid though it is. We can't do it that way, we educate people out of liking stuff, we don't force them to kid on they don't.

[Maggie Mae]

Only three of those books are available at my public library. :(

[ADoyle90815]

Yep. I remember my two-year-old brother falling out of my parents' Corvair in 1966 on a four-lane highway. I was at school, but my sister piped up from the back seat, "Mom, Jay fell out of the car." My mother slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the car. A man had pulled up behind my brother, who was uninjured. The next vehicle they purchased (a Chevrolet Impala station wagon with black vinyl seats) had seatbelts and my mother was RELIGIOUS about making us wear them.

My ex-husband hates Nader with a passion because of that book as he blames it for his dad losing his job as a Corvair mechanic. His dad was never able to hold down a steady job after losing that job. I never met his dad as he died of pancreatic cancer before I met my ex.

As for book banning, I'm against it even for books written by fundies.

[Terrie]

I own five of the books there and have read two others.

And while I have read the Turner Diaries I would NEVER recommend banning it, horrid though it is. We can't do it that way, we educate people out of liking stuff, we don't force them to kid on they don't.

For a class assignment for my library degree, I got to argue against banning the Turner Diaries. Oh, and we got to pick the book we defended. It was a ton of fun.

[constantgardener]

How does Silent Spring make that list? I can understand the inclusion of some of the books (like The Communist Manifesto), but not that one.

I would have thought Silent Spring would be approved fundie reading since they're all on the organic bandwagon now. Oh, hold on, I've just skimmed through my copy and I forgot that it mentions...shhh...evolution.

Riffle

[AnnieC 305]

To make the conversation a bit more interesting - how would FJers feel about a list that included books such as To Train Up a Child, The Turner Diaries or any other right-wing lunatic rantings?

I would say that was a list of dangerous books that people ought to read.

Hey, there's an idea for a post!

[2xx1xy1JD]

I would say that was a list of dangerous books that people ought to read.

Hey, there's an idea for a post!

It's an interesting debate topic. I read The Turner Diaries as part of my work with a major human rights organization, shortly after the Oklahoma bombing, and debating the whole idea of legal limits on "hate speech" was a big topic both in law school and with my work with this organization. The First Amendment in the United States tends to provide more protection for free speech, including hate speech, than you find in other countries (including Canada).

I'm glad to see FJers are pretty consistent on the "banning books is bad" viewpoint. I won't accuse anyone of being a hypocrite.

I've flip-flopped on my views over the years. In many ways, it's a different world than it was in the early 1990s, thanks to the internet. Since there is just so much out there, it's almost impossible to stop the production of hate material. It's now a matter of identifying, labelling, categorizing and monitoring.

[Terrie]

I'm a big fan of Nat Hentoff's stance: The solution to bad speech is MORE speech.

[BravaAmica]

Only three of those books are available at my public library. :(

Did you know you can ask your library to buy specific books? If I recall correctly, part of their annual purchase budget is for that.

Just thought I'd let you [and other FJers] know so we can make sure our libraries stock these books!!!

[browngrl]

I've read most of the books on the list (in truth - I did skim over all the bits I found tedious/ odious). Several of the books I read only because my husband was reading them for a university course and I wanted to know what he was talking about. However, I have read most of these books precisely because someone warned me not to. So far the only time I have regretted not listening to the advice of someone warning me away from a "dangerous" book was when I was advised not to read the Twilight series. I still feel a little dumbed down by my interactions with those sparkly vampires and insipid girl.

edited to add: all books read only in translation - sadly can only read well in English

[WokChop]

Only three of those books are available at my public library. :(

Which reminds me....a while back, my daughter noted that our local library does not carry Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" but it does carry Glenn Beck's "Common Sense." :doh: ::sigh::

[Burris]

What do Mein Kampf, On Liberty, Unsafe at Any Speed, and Silent Spring have in common? Certain rightist buttheads hate all of them and so therefor all of them - regardless of the fact three of the four books there were not so much dangerous as helpful (and Mein Kampf is just a tedious slog through the deluded mind of what turned out to be a blood-thirsty dictator) - deserve to be lumped together onto a single list.

And of course token woman Phyllis Schlafly was called upon to throw a bunch of feminist titles into the already odd mix because she's likely the only person on the board of compilers who has even a passing familiarity with feminism.

That list is like pretty much every other thing done by fanatics (regardless of political bent): Whoever is not for you must surely be against you – and all of those against you are ultimately alike and worthless. That explains the overly broad list of "dangerous" books.

On a related subject, all that has ever been accomplished by banning books is to make them more popular; and worse, in such cases as the Turner Diaries, to imbue them with the mystique of secret truth. (In "defense" of Human Events: I didn't see an overt call in that article to ban any of the books in that giant grab bag.)