Sunday, June 05, 2005
Reading List!
Via Billmon, I discovered the extraordinarily conservative "Human Events Online" and their "10 Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Century."
I had to wonder why it was 19th and 20th, and not, say, of all time? I mean, if it was of all time, the list probably would have been the same. My sneaking suspicion is that it was originally 20th Century, but they had so many people who wanted to vote for The Communist Manifesto that they had to change it.
Seeing Marx, Hitler, Mao is no surprise, but my favorite was #5, Democracy and Education by John Dewey. They describe the book like this:
Book published in: 1916. Bad effects of book: 1990s. Makes complete sense, doesn't it?
I'm also fond of them including John Maynard Keynes (economic policies which helped save the US from the Depression), Betty Friedan (feminazi!) and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the book which kicked off environmentalism, made the runners-up list.
I'm getting a hankering to go back to the Gilded Age and hang with this bros, dude.
Via Billmon, I discovered the extraordinarily conservative "Human Events Online" and their "10 Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Century."
I had to wonder why it was 19th and 20th, and not, say, of all time? I mean, if it was of all time, the list probably would have been the same. My sneaking suspicion is that it was originally 20th Century, but they had so many people who wanted to vote for The Communist Manifesto that they had to change it.
Seeing Marx, Hitler, Mao is no surprise, but my favorite was #5, Democracy and Education by John Dewey. They describe the book like this:
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.
Book published in: 1916. Bad effects of book: 1990s. Makes complete sense, doesn't it?
I'm also fond of them including John Maynard Keynes (economic policies which helped save the US from the Depression), Betty Friedan (feminazi!) and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, the book which kicked off environmentalism, made the runners-up list.
I'm getting a hankering to go back to the Gilded Age and hang with this bros, dude.