10 Books That Screwed Up the World

And 5 Others That Didn't Help

By: Benjamin Wiker

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

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

From Machiavelli's The Prince to Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto to Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, these "influential" books have led to war, genocide, totalitarian oppression, family breakdown, and disastrous social experiments. And yet these authors' bad ideas are still popular and pervasive; in fact, they might influence your own thinking without your realizing it.

Here with the antidote is Professor Benjamin Wiker. In this scintillating new book, he seizes each of these evil books by its malignant heart and exposes it to the light of day. You'll learn:

Why Machiavelli's The Prince was the inspiration for a long list of tyrannies (Stalin had it on his nightstand)

How Descartes's Discourse on Method "proved" God's existence only by making Him a creation of our own ego

How Hobbes's Leviathan led to the belief that we have a "right" to whatever we want

Why Marx and Engels's Communist Manifesto could win the award for the most malicious book ever written

How Darwin's Descent of Man proves he intended "survival of the fittest" to be applied to human society

How Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil issued the call for a world ruled solely by the "will to power"

How Hitler's Mein Kampf was a kind of "spiritualized Darwinism" that accounts for his genocidal anti-Semitism

How the pansexual paradise described in Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa turned out to be a creation of her own sexual confusions and aspirations

Why Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Male was simply autobiography masquerading as science

Witty, shocking, and instructive, 10 Books That Screwed Up the World offers a quick education on the worst ideas in human history and how we can avoid them in the future.

©2008 Benjamin Wiker (P)2008 Tantor

What an Excellent book

Dr. Benjamin is an intelligent man with a deep knowledge, this book is well researched,you will gain an a heavy understanding of why we reach this point in the Western Civilization,who is responsible of this mess,who is the philosophers who Secularised and pornfied the Western Civilization what are their thoughts and ideas?, if you want to know the answer, you should read this book.

Outstanding!

This is a superb audiobook. In each chapter, the author provides a concise summary of the thesis of one of the original books, and then spends the majority of each chapter discussing its consequences, including historical data regarding how each book affected history. There is much information here that I had never heard before, and as a regular audiobook listener (particularly for these types of books) I think I'm fairly familiar with these topics. It left me feeling that there is much in these books that should have been presented and discussed in college.

If you're open-minded. this book will change your perception of the origins of some major topics in society today.

The only thing I can say negative about this book is that I wish it were longer. I hope the author considers a second volume.

I'll need to listen to this twice - there is a lot here to absorb.

FYI, the narrator is excellent.

An Exercise in Philosophical Hypocricy

Let's get the easy part of this out of the way first. The pacing and presentation of the material is outstanding, along with the narration, which perfectly fits with the tones of intellectual superiority with which the author writes.

The author actually starts quite strong, with some reasonably well presented chapters on Machiavelli through Hobbes. I agree VERY strongly with the author's early assertion that it is ESSENTIAL to read these books in their entirety to understand their implications (yes, even Mein Kampf.)

Now for the flies in the pudding. Beginning with his discussion of Rosseau, however, the author begins to reveal his biases and hidden agenda. He derides Rosseau's work as the beginning of all the misguided liberal agenda ever since.

For the balance of the book, the author is unashamed of saying that it is impossible to establish a legitimate standard of right and wrong based upon anything but the Judeo-Christian model. Essentially all of his discourse beyond that point consists of cherry-picked facts and ad-hominem arguments (particularly with respect to Meade and Kinsey.

In summary, if you want to read something to spare you the effort of reading those other difficult works and to reaffirm a world view intolerant of anything but extreme religious conservatism, this is the book for you. Otherwise, go read the original philosophical works yourself, and spare yourself the hypocrisy.

Simply Excellent

A head on confrontation with several poisonous ideas presented in a level, reasoned and unpretentious manner. Ideas have consequences and this book shows the reader how some of the worst ideas have had a lasting and profound impact on our society. The narrator does the work justice and it was a truly enjoyable presentation. One of the best I've heard in a long time. Well done.

Absolutely on the mark.

This book is on the mark. The reader will be quite interested to see the philosophic/literary road that lead us where we are today. Fascinating and enlightening. Highly recommended.

Good book

I have actually never read any of the books on the list and it was good to have a summary of each. I would have liked a more objective and less simplified review of the books. Even though I have never read them, I still felt that the author was leaving something out, and only included those ideas that correlated with his thesis. In general though, I liked the book.

Speaks to today's world

Comprehensive coverage of books many have heard of but also have not looked at in depth. Connects the dots, especially between the atheistic and Marxist deterioration of society. The last sentence should have been. "without God we can do nothing."

Good read, clear viewpoint

I enjoyed the book, and found myself agreeing with most of the propositions given by the author. I do also agree with some other readers that the book should probably carry a religious label, even if it's only a sub category. Having said that, I still have to read any book that states the counter position as well as Wiker states his position here.

Amazing book

This book is social and political commentary elevated to the level of art. Each chapter moves quickly and draws you in, Wiker's prose is sophicated, witty and clear, and the narrator was excellent. You learn alot with each chapter, a short history of the author and summary of each book, then an analysis of the book, focusing on the major themes, and learning how each book/author "twists" moral and ethical concepts of truth, history, ethics, morality, society, humanity, individualism,religion, science etc etc, and ultimately what the bad outcomes were for followers or society in general, as applicable. I went through 4 hours in one afternoon, then finished up the next 2 hours the following day. Just awesome. Finally, I can say as a conservative agnostic I didn't find anything evangelical in Wiker's writing, though clearly it seems he is a Christian with his morality firmly set in the Judeo-Christian tradition (most conservatives do, regardless of faith)... but this is hardly a reason to be insulted or disgusted by this book, unless you despise religion above all else. The writing and narration alone merits at least 3 stars, and if you like the content too, then it's 5 stars, easy! Get it!

The roots of our culture's decline

Listen more than once to absorb, shudder at & assess how the civilized world degraded to the self-worshipping, indulgent, morally bereft state. Narrator's voice so deep, had to turn up volume to catch every word.