10 Books that Screwed Up the World: And 5 Others That Didn't Help

by Benjamin Wiker

Overview

You’ve heard of the "Great Books"? These are their evil opposites.

From Machiavelli's The Prince to Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, from Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto to Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa, these "influential" books have led to war, genocide, totalitarian oppression, the breakdown of the family, and disastrous social experiments.

And yet the toxic ideas peddled in these books are more popular and pervasive than ever. In fact, they might influence your own thinking without your realizing it.

Fortunately, Professor Benjamin Wiker is ready with an antidote, exposing the beguiling errors in each of these evil books.

Witty, learned, and provocative, 10 Books That Screwed Up the World provides a quick education in the worst ideas in human history and explains how we can avoid them in the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781596980631
Publisher:	Skyhorse Publishing
Publication date:	05/06/2008
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	260
Sales rank:	1,061,604
File size:	384 KB

About the Author

Benjamin Wiker, a husband and the father of seven children, holds a Ph.D. in theological ethics from Vanderbilt University. He has taught at Marquette University, St. Mary’s University, and Thomas Aquinas College and is now a professor of political science and the director of human life studies at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. His twelve books include 10 Books Every Conservative Must Read: Plus Four Not to Miss and One Impostor, The Reformation 500 Years Later: 12 Things You Need to Know, and Worshipping the State: How Liberalism Became Our State Religion.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Ideas Have Consequences 1

Part I Preliminary Screw-Ups

Chapter 1 The Prince 7

Chapter 2 Discourse on Method 17

Chapter 3 Leviathan 31

Chapter 4 Discourse on the. Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men 41

Part II Ten Big Screw-Ups

Chapter 5 The Manifesto of the Communist Party 57

Chapter 6 Utilitarianism 73

Chapter 7 The Descent of Man 85

Chapter 8 Beyond Good and Evil 99

Chapter 9 The State and Revolution 115

Chapter 10 The Pivot of Civilization 127

Chapter 11 Mein Kampf 145

Chapter 12 The Future of an Illusion 165

Chapter 13 Coming of Age in Samoa 177

Chapter 14 Sexual Behavior in the Human Male 195

Part III Dishonorable Mention

Chapter 15 The Feminine Mystique 211

Afterword: A Conclusive Outline of Sanity 227

Acknowledgments 233

Notes 235

Index 251