Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

The conservative magazine Human Events just published a list of the "Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries." It's quite interesting, if only as a glimpse into the mind of the right. The top five:

Marx & Engels, The Communist Manifesto
Adolph Hitler, My Struggle (Mein Kampf)
Mao Zedong, Quotations from Chairman Mao (The Little Red Book)
Alfred Kinsey, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, a.k.a. The Kinsey Report
John Dewey, Democracy and Education

By all means, go to the website to see the full list, the books that didn't make the top-10 cut, and the sophomoric critiques of the 10 worst, First, though, reflect on the bizarre potpourri of the top quintet: tomes by two of the three greatest killers of the 20th century and a work by the intellectual fathers of communism along with a scientific examination of actual sexual behavior and the argument of a liberal philosopher for broader education? Huh? Well, whaddya expect from a panel that includes such luminaries as Phyllis Schlafly...

Now, since, after all, competition and argument is the sine qua non of the modern right, I thought I ought to offer a counter-list. Trouble is, unlike its counterpart across the aisle, conservatism has an intellectual pedigree as thin as Paris Hilton's moral code. They cite Smith and Burke and Hayek, but c'mon - I like all three of those guys, too, and I don't exactly think Burke would be enamored of W's innovations in the war on terra. But by using my brain, my heart, and whatever gland it is that produces bile, I did manage to come up with a mix-and-match list of the five most harmful books of the American 20th century:

5. Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead (some of the worst writing imaginable put in service of an idiotic and opaque argument for human freedom - or something)
4. Barry Goldwater, Conscience of a Conservative (the touchstone of the contemporary conservative movement)
3. William F. Buckley, God and Man at Yale (a supposed demonstration of the bankruptcy of the liberal academy and the society it fosters)
2. The Old Testament (admittedly the foundation of Western thought, but from Genesis and Exodus to Deuteronomy and Daniel it's also full of the most and worst nonsense ever to be taken seriously for so long)
1. The New Testament (the Gospels are almost heartbreaking in their longing for life after death - a sentiment which has been irretrievably torn from its original soil and reshaped as the pinnacle of utopian thought - but the capstone for me is Revelation, the horrific brutality of which has excused so much violence right up to, say, yesterday)