With all the recent debate over banning books raging through America, understanding books’ influence is essential. Members of an online forum shared ten of the most dangerous books ever written.
1. Heredity and Its Variability by Trofim Lysenko
A historian cites this book as responsible for starving over 60 million people after its publication. “Trofim Lysenko believed that you could encourage plants to grow better using Lamarckian principles,” laments a contributor. “He believed that plant roots would intertwine and form communities like good communist societies should do.”
2. Das Kapital by Karl Marx
Without Marxism, the world would have continued without communism and its subsequent economic cataclysms. Many argue that Lysenko’s pseudo-scientific agricultural manual would not have been possible with his predecessor. Named Capital: A Critique of Political Economy before becoming simply Das Kapital, Marx’s study of the bourgeoisie and elitist privilege changed the world forever.
3. Strategic Intelligence for American World Policy by Sherman Kent
The American intelligence specialist wrote a professional analysis following World War II, which detailed and appraised the government’s entire national and military apparatus. “The book contains many ideas which are now obsolete and reads more like a manifesto than an academic text,” argues a reader. “Nonetheless, and to this day, the intelligence services of the Western world reflect many of the fundamental principles established by Kent.”
4. Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
The infamous Nazi dictator used an us-versus-them ethos of division in his rise to power and near conquering Western Europe. He wrote Mein Kampf from prison during his five-year sentence for high treason following an attempted coup d’etat. The book charts the former artist’s regression into antisemitism and his plans for German supremacy.
5. Quotations From Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book by Mao Zedong
The famous little red book was turned into a shortened communist manual for devoted members of the infamous Red Guard. Devised by the People’s Liberation Army, copies of the quotation book were distributed throughout the ranks. They formed the central pillar of the rising Maoism that engulfed China’s Cultural Revolution in 1966. The book fueled nationwide hatred against groups not serving the Chairman or China’s interests.
6. To Train up a Child by Michael and Debi Pearl
This self-help book was written by a fundamentalist preacher and his wife and served as a parenting book, though with a punitive, harsh methodology. “Much of the stuff in it is abusive,” a non-fan exclaims. “The book has even been linked to the deaths of a few kids.” Ironically, some people use kinder methods with their dogs.
7. Die Deutsche Mütter und Ihr Erstes Kind by Johanna Haarer
This German “first baby” book was published as late as 1987 and came from a National Socialist doctor who wrote many volumes about childcare. One commenter reports how the book claims that “babies should be trained to a specific feeding schedule, and children should never be listened to if they scream about something.” Another Haarer title is: Mother, Tell Us About Adolf Hitler!
8. Marie Curie’s Diary
So exposed to polonium and radium was Marie Curie’s body that even today, her diary must be stored in a lead container. “Basically, every other book needs a person to read it, and then the person becomes the danger,” reveals an observer. “That diary is dangerous on its own.”
9. Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Kramer
In the Middle Ages, fears of witchcraft reached a fever pitch. A German clergyman compiled this study on 15th-century demonology, laying the foundation for many witch hunts. “This is the answer,” offers an avid historian. “This book contributed to the deaths of thousands of women during the Salem Witch Hunts.”
10. The Influence of Seapower Upon History by Alfred Thayer Mahan
“All major powers of the world read this book at a time when technology was rapidly advancing,” a history expert teaches us. “This influence led to an explosive amount of shipbuilding and eventual conflict in World War I and World War II.”
What is the most dangerous book you know?
Source: Reddit.
This article was first published and syndicated by The Cents of Money.Â
