العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
EspañolLIST OF CONTROVERSIAL NON-FICTION BOOKS
(Redirected from Controversial book)
This is a list of 'controversial non-fiction books' aimed at the general reader which discuss controversial issues, or have been (or were at the time of writing) discussed for other reasons. For controversial fictional books, see list of banned books.
★ ''Coming of Age in Samoa'' by Margaret Mead (1928)
:In 1983, five years after Mead had died, Derek Freeman published ''Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth'', in which he challenged all of Mead's major findings. In 1983, the American Anthropological Association passed a motion declaring Freeman's Margaret Mead and Samoa "poorly written, unscientific, irresponsible and misleading."[1]
★ ''Darkness in El Dorado'' by Patrick Tierney (2000)
:Accuses James Neel and Napoleon Chagnon, among other things, of exacerbating an epidemic among the Yanomamo people. A panel at the University of Michigan found the "claims are false".[2]
★ ''A New Kind of Science'' by Stephen Wolfram (2002)
:The book has attracted several types of criticism and some critics have labeled the book crankery.[3]
★ ''Silent Spring'' by Rachel Carson (1962)
:This book popularized environmentalism by exposing to the public the dangers of chemical pesticides, and accusing the chemical industry of unethical behavior. This led to a subsequent ban of the pesticide DDT, however some claim that this ban is responsible for a worldwide resurgence in malaria and millions of human deaths.
★ ''The Population Bomb'' by Paul R. Ehrlich (1968)
:Predicted disaster for humanity due to overpopulation and the "population explosion". Critics have compared Ehrlich to Thomas Malthus for his multiple predictions of famine and economic catastrophe. Also traditional conservatives have been especially critical of the ideas of the book: ''The Population Bomb'' made the Intercollegiate Studies Institute's "50 Worst Books of the Twentieth Century"[4] in 2003 and was #11 ("honorable" mention) in Human Events "Ten Most Harmful Books of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries" [5].
★ ''The Hoax of the Twentieth Century'' by Arthur Butz (1976)
:Basis of much of the Holocaust denial movement.
★ ''Hitler's Willing Executioners'' by Daniel Goldhagen (1996)
:Posits that ordinary Germans not only knew about, but also supported, the Holocaust. The most common general complaints are that his primary hypothesis is simplistic and either unprovable or ill-formed. Raul Hilberg has written that Goldhagen is "totally wrong about everything. Totally wrong. Exceptionally wrong."[6]
★ ''Hitler's Pope'' by John Cornwell (1999)
:Examined the actions of Pope Pius XII during the Nazi era. Ken Woodward, speaking to ''Newsweek'', stated that Hitler's Pope has "errors of fact and ignorance of context [that] appear on almost every page."[7] More recently, Cornwell acknowledged that he had erred in ascribing evil motives to Pius when writing ''Hitler's Pope'', and said he now found it "impossible to judge" the wartime pontiff's motives.[8]
★ ''Sexual Behavior in the Human Male'' (1948) and ''Sexual Behavior in the Human Female'' (1953) by Alfred Kinsey et al.
:Controversial with conservatives as promoting degeneracy. #3 on Intercollegiate Studies Institute's "50 Worst Books of the Twentieth Century" in 2003 and was #4 in Human Events "Ten Most Harmful Books of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries" . There are academic criticisms pertain to sample selection and sample bias; [9]
1. Boundaries of Competence: How Social Studies Make Feeble Science, , Gwynn, Nettler, Transaction Publishers, 2003,
2.
3. A Rare Blend of Monster Raving Egomania and Utter Batshit Insanity
4. http://www.mmisi.org/ir/35_01/50worst.pdf
5. Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries
6. Is There a New Anti-Semitism? A Conversation with Raul Hilberg, , , , Logos: a journal of modern society & culture,
7. Kenneth L. Woodward, ''Newsweek'', September 27, 1999.
8. John Cornwell, ''The Pontiff in Winter'' (2004), p. 193
9.
This is a list of 'controversial non-fiction books' aimed at the general reader which discuss controversial issues, or have been (or were at the time of writing) discussed for other reasons. For controversial fictional books, see list of banned books.
| Contents |
| Anthropology |
| Cosmology |
| Environmentalism |
| History |
| Sociology |
| References |
Anthropology
★ ''Coming of Age in Samoa'' by Margaret Mead (1928)
:In 1983, five years after Mead had died, Derek Freeman published ''Margaret Mead and Samoa: The Making and Unmaking of an Anthropological Myth'', in which he challenged all of Mead's major findings. In 1983, the American Anthropological Association passed a motion declaring Freeman's Margaret Mead and Samoa "poorly written, unscientific, irresponsible and misleading."[1]
★ ''Darkness in El Dorado'' by Patrick Tierney (2000)
:Accuses James Neel and Napoleon Chagnon, among other things, of exacerbating an epidemic among the Yanomamo people. A panel at the University of Michigan found the "claims are false".[2]
Cosmology
★ ''A New Kind of Science'' by Stephen Wolfram (2002)
:The book has attracted several types of criticism and some critics have labeled the book crankery.[3]
Environmentalism
★ ''Silent Spring'' by Rachel Carson (1962)
:This book popularized environmentalism by exposing to the public the dangers of chemical pesticides, and accusing the chemical industry of unethical behavior. This led to a subsequent ban of the pesticide DDT, however some claim that this ban is responsible for a worldwide resurgence in malaria and millions of human deaths.
★ ''The Population Bomb'' by Paul R. Ehrlich (1968)
:Predicted disaster for humanity due to overpopulation and the "population explosion". Critics have compared Ehrlich to Thomas Malthus for his multiple predictions of famine and economic catastrophe. Also traditional conservatives have been especially critical of the ideas of the book: ''The Population Bomb'' made the Intercollegiate Studies Institute's "50 Worst Books of the Twentieth Century"[4] in 2003 and was #11 ("honorable" mention) in Human Events "Ten Most Harmful Books of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries" [5].
History
★ ''The Hoax of the Twentieth Century'' by Arthur Butz (1976)
:Basis of much of the Holocaust denial movement.
★ ''Hitler's Willing Executioners'' by Daniel Goldhagen (1996)
:Posits that ordinary Germans not only knew about, but also supported, the Holocaust. The most common general complaints are that his primary hypothesis is simplistic and either unprovable or ill-formed. Raul Hilberg has written that Goldhagen is "totally wrong about everything. Totally wrong. Exceptionally wrong."[6]
★ ''Hitler's Pope'' by John Cornwell (1999)
:Examined the actions of Pope Pius XII during the Nazi era. Ken Woodward, speaking to ''Newsweek'', stated that Hitler's Pope has "errors of fact and ignorance of context [that] appear on almost every page."[7] More recently, Cornwell acknowledged that he had erred in ascribing evil motives to Pius when writing ''Hitler's Pope'', and said he now found it "impossible to judge" the wartime pontiff's motives.[8]
Sociology
★ ''Sexual Behavior in the Human Male'' (1948) and ''Sexual Behavior in the Human Female'' (1953) by Alfred Kinsey et al.
:Controversial with conservatives as promoting degeneracy. #3 on Intercollegiate Studies Institute's "50 Worst Books of the Twentieth Century" in 2003 and was #4 in Human Events "Ten Most Harmful Books of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries" . There are academic criticisms pertain to sample selection and sample bias; [9]
References
1. Boundaries of Competence: How Social Studies Make Feeble Science, , Gwynn, Nettler, Transaction Publishers, 2003,
2.
3. A Rare Blend of Monster Raving Egomania and Utter Batshit Insanity
4. http://www.mmisi.org/ir/35_01/50worst.pdf
5. Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries
6. Is There a New Anti-Semitism? A Conversation with Raul Hilberg, , , , Logos: a journal of modern society & culture,
7. Kenneth L. Woodward, ''Newsweek'', September 27, 1999.
8. John Cornwell, ''The Pontiff in Winter'' (2004), p. 193
9.
This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.
psst.. try this: add to faves
Featured Companies
| Dancing Moon Travel | |
| Selloffvacations.com Oakville |
Newest Companies
List of controversial non-fiction books Travel Deals
