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| 10 Books That Screwed Up the World: And 5 Others That Didn't Help (Unabridged) | 
 enlarge | Author: Benjamin Wiker
Publisher: audible.com
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  41 reviews
Media: Audio Download
ASIN: B001G8MBEI
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Product Description
From Machiavelli to Marx, Nietzsche to Hitler, this volume offers a provocative look at some of Western civilization's most infamous authors and their literary works and shows how these works have inflicted great evil in the world---and still cause suffering.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 36 more reviews...
 An Important Book May 7, 2008
99 out of 146 found this review helpful
I recommend this book to any American who is concerned about the condition of our culture. Dr. Benjamin Wiker is the kind of doctor we need in order to heal our souls, a specialist in moral philosophy. Too many of the bright minds of our boomer generation swallowed the dangerous idea that morality had been superseded, and that technology and scientific knowledge would be sufficient to guide us into an ever-improving future. On a personal and on a societal level, we are now realizing that morality matters, and that we had better take another look at the moral tradition that Western Civilization has been grounded in thru all these centuries.
Ben Wiker is extremely well-informed about that tradition, and there is more good news: his writing is not dry, obscure or impenetrable. His style is lively and fast-paced, and he has a flair for memorable figures of speech. Since he has been a teacher for many years, he knows how to keep the level of his discourse appropriate to his intended audience. Thankfully, that level is such that his book is accessible to anyone who is not afraid to think about ideas, and who has a high-school graduate's command of English.
An alternative title for this book might be "Philosophers' Absurdities," a phrase taken from Wiker's introduction. Please don't let the word philosophy scare you. Wiker has a virtuoso's ability to cut the concepts down to sizes appropriate for those of us who have not taken courses in philosophy. And he does not fall into the trap of presuming knowledge in fields that are not within his expertise. For example, in his discussion of Darwin and the survival of the fittest, he concentrates on Darwin's pronouncements about human beings and their moral status, rather than getting into murky discussions about biological speciation or Lyellian substantive uniformitarianism.
This book does not have the answers to all of life's questions, but it gives a clear-minded critique of some very dangerous ideas. Please read this book and then join the work of reading, thinking and communicating that will be necessary in order to restore our nation's moral compass. Perhaps Dr. Wiker will aid us in this work by following up with another compilation, 10 Books That Can Heal the World. Until then, I recommend "Schall's Twenty Books to Keep Sane By," which is available on the Web.
Wiker's book has an adequate 10-page index and is printed in easy-to-read type on pages which have minimal show-thru. The binding looks strong. All in all, it is worth the price.
Benjamin Wiker has been blessed with a brilliant mind, and with the ability to communicate his mind's findings with grace and artistry. For evidence of this quality, see the Amazon reviews of his earlier book (written with Jonathan Witt) A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature.
Well worth the read! May 10, 2008
97 out of 140 found this review helpful
Disturbing, witty, insightful, enlightened, often humorous and certainly worthwhile. Benjamin Wiker's "10 Books that Screwed up the world, and 5 others that didn't help", is not just a book on Philosophy, Theology or social comminatory. Dr Wiker is detailing the slippery slope our culture has been trotting down for the last four hundred plus years. Some of what I liked about this book is the thoroughness with which Machiavelli, Descartes ET el., and their works are covered. I also like the additional background, Dr. Wiker offers to help to frame and flesh out the authors and the works discussed. The aforementioned background I found immensely useful in my attempt to understand where the likes of Machiavelli, Descartes, and Hobbes were coming from; and equally as important in understanding how Engels and Darwin provided a faulty foundation for Hitler, Freud and others to follow.
I believe the author has done the hard reading and research necessary to provide even handed diagnosis of the books, theories, politics and political philosophy under discussion. He does an excellent job of tying together the domino effect of one bad idea built upon a previous bad idea. His book is impressively researched and thoughtfully laid out.
Ben Wiker states on page 191"The desire that something be true, rather than the desire for truth itself, may well be the root of all evil. It is certainly the origin of all ideology, and ideology was the source of much of the evil in the past century." I found this quote summarized many of the findings of this book. Throughout this book, it is apparent the authors discussed looked to themselves as the source of truth, rather than seeking guidance from another source; God.
Well worth the read! This book is a quick and easy read. The author presents his ideas in a witty conversational manor
I have a background in Sociology and have taught Sociological theory on the college level. If and when I return to the college classroom I will use this very readable and easily understandable book as one of my required texts.
Read this book before it is banned on college campuses, buried and burned by the media.
 Preaching to the choir June 18, 2008
62 out of 102 found this review helpful
Conservatives are going to love it while the author skewers historically important works in moral relativism, his sword being his belief that atheism is the reason these poor fools can't see the difference between right and wrong. This is sort of a non-thinking persons philosophy: begin by being informed by right beliefs and you'll see what pernicious hogwash this stuff is.
Lumping in Hitler with Descartes, putting Kinsey on a par with Machiavelli, the overarching perspective looks to be informed merely by what offends the author. I was hoping for a real, reasoned list of books, tracing their reverberations down through the centuries in a scholarly fashion. What this book is, is the scandalized "well, I NEVER!" by a deeply offended man who, like one of his lambasted authors characterized all of us, thinks he has no need for more common sense than he already possesses.
If they somehow stumble across this book, free thinkers and the like will just shake their head, and wonder why the bible isn't in the top ten. Conservatives, conservative christians, and others who distrust any philosophy that ventures outside the box will love it.
The bottom line: I can strongly recommend this book if you're a conservative who enjoys a good vicarious snit fit about people who don't think like you do.
A travesty June 16, 2008
61 out of 100 found this review helpful
As an aspiring political theorist who is intimately familiar with the work of many of the authors on this list, I can say that this book is quite obviously simplistic, agenda-driven garbage that has no place in a classroom.
Every single one of these authors has something valuable and necessary to teach us, some in direct and meaningful ways. Machiavelli was not simply amoral; he held a republican view of liberty and citizenship that was influential in struggles against royal absolutism for centuries. Hobbes has challenged generations of students to think deeply about the limits of governmental power and how far we ought to trade liberties for the sake of security. Rousseau was one of the few thinkers of the Enlightenment who wasn't blinded by its promises, and his critique of modern society echoes many of the concerns that many on both sides of the political spectrum hold today. And hardly anyone in history has been more misunderstood and dragged through the mud, by both his detractors and his most committed disciples, than Karl Marx, with the possible exception of Jesus Christ.
Every one of these authors became popular and widely-read for a reason; they made powerful arguments that resonated with the aspirations or concerns of millions of human beings. To understand the impact they have had on our world, it is necessary to study them objectively - 100% objectively. It is necessary to actually read "The Prince", "Leviathan", and so on, and not take someone's word for it. As for the "Christian" angle of critique, let's remember that it is a largely Americanizied, libertarianized version of Christianity - millions of Christians in every other part of the world have been able to appreciate and even critically employ the ideas of at least some of these philosophers, Liberation Theology in Latin America being a prime example (it fuses Christianity and Marxism and has millions of adherents).
The only thing I would ever use this disgraceful book for is an example of how not to teach the history of modern political thought.
Ideas Do Have Consequences, But Only Some of Them Are Exposed Thoroughly June 2, 2008
56 out of 75 found this review helpful
Benjamin Wiker, who has authored numerous books of late and manages to thesource website has written another book here dealing with books he alleges have, by the ideas posited by the authors of these text, had horrendous consequences. I have found almost all of the negative reviews absolutely hilarious. I mean, one reviewer rants about President Bush! Likewise, however, I have found most of the extremely positive reviews to be somewhat short sided. I hope my review brings more critical analyses, which I have found only in a couple of other reviews here.
I normally try and keep my reviews short. I mean after all, who wants to read my drivel; but this is one case that I may have to develop a large review. First, on to the negative side: Wiker includes a text in this book that quite puzzles me.
First is his inclusion of Rene Descartes "Discource on Methods" (1637). Wiker claims "He (Descartes) proved God's existence, but only by making it depend on our thinking Him into existence. By his good intentions--if indeed they really were good--he fathered every flavor of self-congratulatory solipsism . . . and made religion a creation of our own ego." He further charges Descartes for opening a new era of skepticism when in effect trying to find away around it. I am not sure this is a fair assessment. While Descartes' starting "point" can be criticized (which Wiker does), Descartes "method" also has some very strong points as well. The problem is when one uses skepticism as a pre-text to only buttress one's presuppositions (which happens often, I agree); however, it does not necessarily follow that one will use Descartes starting point incorrectly. Wiker here does not make his case and in the process he impugns Descartes motives as well. This is also curious since Descartes was a strong defender in the rational belief in God. He developed forms of the cosmological argument and ontological argument. He further demonstrated that truth is objective, knowable, and rational. I would agree that there is fault to find here, (his ontological argument makes an invalid transition from thought to reality), but to make it a runner-up to the most dangerous books is I suggest faulty. On other books, where I agree with him their results and logical outworkings have potential effects, I often found him dealing with side issues instead of the weightier ones.
Also, why I think Kinsey's book is a form of intellectual impersonation, I think the effects of this book have really been minuscule. I posit that the sexual immoral behavior so prevalent today gets as much from the foundations laid by Kinsey as they do from multiple other areas (other media and including again Nietzsche, Freud, etc, etc.). Wiker may be right here, but he does not provide enough research to my satisfaction that most of the intellectual establishment embraced Kinsey's ideas back then or now.
On the positive side, there is much in this book that is good. It first, when it is on target, reminds us that Ideas Have Consequences! Our society does not want to always believe that their idols of intellect have often proved disastrous and in addition, it was the logical outworking of the ideas set forth. Many who look for support for a world without individual responsibility look to the existentialist philosopher Nietzsche, whose Beyond Good and Evil (and other works), has set a many persons and much of modern society on a quest of indulgence - as he asserted "They (the overmen) determine the whether and the to what end of mankind." He even question principles of injure no man (or person) and he rejected the "soft" virtues of love and humility and accept the "hard" male virtues of harshness.
In addition, he rightly includes Darwin's Descent of Man. Wiker here provides Darwin's own words (in context no less, which many others who have sought to disgrace Darwin rarely do), but Wiker shows how Darwin's caveat to his "eugenics" statements does not negate the logical conclusions of his ideas and his ideas have been used for eugenics purposes in the Western world to ill effect (Nazis and eugenics in America). Those who want to decry that this is an unfair conclusion must completely disregard the evidence and logical outworking of ideas.
There is more that can be said. In some respects, I thought this book was right on target, in other respects, I was left wanting more research and analysis. I think that more of backdrop should have been provided and less books discussed. This would have provided a more robust discussion on the top 10 books and would have made his presentation stronger.
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