# What "Evil" books should I read? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 29, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369 "2009-06-29T18:09:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/1 "2009-06-29T18:09:20Z")
I’m talking about books like _Mein Kampf_ or _The Turner Diaries_, that are products of minds dangerous and extremely abberant from the mainstream. What are some others? If you’ve read some, do you recommend them, and why? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/2 "2009-06-29T18:23:35Z")
Some of the Marquise De Sade’s stuff is pretty messed up, even by today’s standards. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/3 "2009-06-29T19:54:28Z")
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion The Communist Manifesto The Hoax of the Twentieth Century Imperium by Francis Parker Yockey (I never made it through 3 and didn’t get past the foreword of 4). ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/4 "2009-06-29T20:01:49Z")
**FriarTed** , what are 3 and 4 about, or, what type of “evil” book are they? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/5 "2009-06-29T20:12:19Z")
The Hoax of the 20th Century denies the Holocaust exists. Imperium says that Hitler was right and that Europe should be under a unified fascist government. I’d recommend “the Creature from Jekyll Island” It’s one of the better written of the “the Federal Reserve is an evil cabal of shadowy international financiers/Freemasons/Bilderbergers who are trying to set up a new world order and destroy American sovereignty and so we need to go back to the gold standard” nuttiness. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/6 "2009-06-29T20:14:52Z")
I was going to suggest something by Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/7 "2009-06-29T20:17:00Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > The Protocols of the Elders of Zion > > The Communist Manifesto > > The Hoax of the Twentieth Century > > Imperium by Francis Parker Yockey > > (I never made it through 3 and didn’t get past the foreword of 4). I’ve never even picked up 4, but it is reviewed [here.](http://www.johnreilly.info/imp.htm) Plenty of other evil (and not-so-evil) books reviewed by John J. Reilly (a Catholic conservative intellectual with interests in eschatology and theories of history) [here,](http://www.johnreilly.info/hist.htm) [here,](http://www.johnreilly.info/esch.htm) and [here.](http://www.johnreilly.info/polwri.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/8 "2009-06-29T20:20:43Z")
“The Klansman” which is the book that “Birth of a Nation” is based on, I understand, is pretty evil. Word is D.W. Griffith cleaned it up quite a bit before he filmed it, which’ll give you an idea. Very difficult to find though. Personally, I find books like “Fascinating Womanhood” and the like which say things like, “Ladies, if you act all sweet and empty-headed, your husband will love you more.” are sorta evil. Books that advance the recovered memory movement like “When Rabbit Howls” piss me off. I saw that one at Barnes and Noble yesterday. Thankfully, the recovered memory craze seems to be dying out. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/9 "2009-06-29T20:23:13Z")
Read whatever you want- just be forewarned that a LOT of “evil” stuff is mighty boring when you actually read, see or hear it. When a teenage metalhead with an urge to be transgressive picks up a Charles Manson record, he’s likely to be EXTREMELY disappointed when he finds out that Charles was actually a wimpy wuss who mostly wrote and played folkie stuff. As a musician, Charles Manson was much closer to Cat Stevens than to Alice Cooper. In the same way, a lot of “evil” books are pretty tedious. I HAD to read “Das Kapital” at Columbia. It’s slow going, to put it charitably (in fairness, Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations” was a snooze, too; I suspect most of my fellw free-market conservatives have read OF it than have actually read it!). And Hitler was not exactly a master prose stylist. If you don’t fall asleep first, “Mein Kampf” is likely to make you wonder, “Who could possibly have thought this pompous dweeb was the savior of Germany???” ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/10 "2009-06-29T20:40:39Z")
I’d lend you my copies of Mr. Crowley’s diaries, but my pet bird Azazel ate them. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/11 "2009-06-29T20:46:35Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > “The Klansman” which is the book that “Birth of a Nation” is based on, I understand, is pretty evil. Word is D.W. Griffith cleaned it up quite a bit before he filmed it, which’ll give you an idea. Very difficult to find though. I came in here to mention that one. I have a copy. It’s very old, but I can’t remember quite how old and I’m not at home at the moment to check. My husband found it at our neighbors’ garage sale. He showed it to me with wide eyes and his mouth hanging open. Of course we bought it. I haven’t been able to muster up the courage to read it, though. [This picture](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dixonfp.jpg) was enough to make me feel pretty queasy. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/12 "2009-06-29T20:51:28Z")
_Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong_ (aka _The Little Red Book_) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/13 "2009-06-29T20:58:03Z")
> [@](#): > > I HAD to read “Das Kapital” at Columbia. It’s slow going, to put it charitably Very charitably. Here’s the opening passage of Volume II: > [@](#): > > Chapter 1: The Circuit of Money Capital > > The circular movement of capital takes place in three stages, which, according to the presentation in Volume I, form the following series: > > First stage: The capitalist appears as a buyer on the commodity- and the labour-market; his money is transformed into commodities, or it goes through the circulation act M — C. > > Second Stage: Productive consumption of the purchased commodities by the capitalist. He acts as a capitalist producer of commodities; his capital passes through the process of production. The result is a commodity of more value than that of the elements entering into its production. > > Third Stage: The capitalist returns to the market as a seller; his commodities are turned into money; or they pass through the circulation act C — M. > > Hence the formula for the circuit of money-capital is: M — C … P … C’ — M’, the dots indicating that the process of circulation is interrupted, and C’ and M’ designating C and M increased by surplus-value. > > The first and third stages were discussed in Book I only in so far as this was necessary for the understanding of the second stage, the process of production of capital. For this reason, the various forms which capital takes on in its different stages, and which now assumes and now strips off in the repetition of its circuit, were not considered. These forms are now the direct object of our study. > > In order to conceive these forms in their pure state, one must first of all discard all factors which have nothing to do with the changing or building of forms as such. It is therefore taken for granted here not only that the commodities are sold at their values but also that this takes place under the same conditions throughout. Likewise disregarded therefore are any changes of value which might occur during the movement in circuits. Exciting, huh? Like any good writer, Marx knew you had to hook the reader with the first page. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/14 "2009-06-29T21:01:21Z")
_The Communist Manifesto_ does not belong on this list. It advicates nothing hateful or evil, and it certainly is not comparable to the racist titles listed in this thread. I would defend Marx as essentially correct in most of his assumptions, and as a Humanitarian in general. He was naive in many ways, but he wasn’t evil. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/15 "2009-06-29T21:10:49Z")
**The SCUM Manifesto** by Valerie Solanis **Chasing Hairy** by Michael Fleischer (When he sued Harlan Ellison for calling him “bugfuck,” Fleischer’s lawyers tried to get this horrible book excluded from evidence) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/16 "2009-06-29T21:12:42Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > _The Communist Manifesto_ does not belong on this list. It advicates nothing hateful or evil, and it certainly is not comparable to the racist titles listed in this thread. Except for advocating the violent overthrow of society, the abolition of private property, and abolition of the family. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/17 "2009-06-29T21:18:31Z")
> [@](#): > > I would defend Marx as essentially correct in most of his assumptions, and as a Humanitarian in general. He was naive in many ways, but he wasn’t evil. I’d say Marx was more often wrong than right in his assumptions. His biggest error was assuming the conditions he saw in his immediate view were universal. And his naivete was so enormous that it was virtually evil. He advocated turning over all power to a small group of ideologues with no checks over them. Marx simply assumed that this would be okay because these men would only use their unchecked power righteously. That’s not just naive; that’s foolish. The reality is that once these men had power they kept it and used it to favor themselves. Marx may not have wanted to create men like Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Dzerzhinsky, Beria, Ho, Castro, Tito, Ceausescu, Guzman, Honecker, Hoxha, Mengistu, Najibullah, Neto, Kim and Kim Junior, but he created a system that all of these men used. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/18 "2009-06-29T21:32:18Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Read whatever you want- just be forewarned that a LOT of “evil” stuff is mighty boring when you actually read, see or hear it. Ain’t that the truth. Many ‘evil’ books tend to be pompous, boring, and wandery. Sometimes they have many CAPITALS. _Fascinating Womanhood_ is good for a giggle, though. I used to bug my husband by cooing things like “I’m so glad _you’re_ the man!” Has anyone mentioned “The Anarchist’s Cookbook” yet? Don’t try the recipes at home, I hear they’re quite as likely to blow you up as to work as advertised. ---
**Author:** ![Troubles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Troubles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troubles)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/19 "2009-06-29T22:05:00Z")
I heartily recommend _The Mind of Oswald_, by Diane Holloway. It’s not composed entirely of Oswald’s writings and thoughts (it also has Ms. Holloway’s analysis and comments), but I think it fits your criteria. It’s a very interesting book about an enigmatic man. Here’s the first sentence of the book; it effectively summarizes what it’s about… “The goal of this book is to examine Oswald’s own words to learn what was going on in his mind.” ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369/20 "2009-06-29T22:05:34Z")
Well, whether the _Communist Manifesto_ is evil, or just wrong, I’ve already read it. _The Klansman_ sounds tempting, and the Marquis de Sade for my “Evil Books After Dark” shelf. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-evil-books-should-i-read/501369.md?page=2)