Opposing viewpoint book pairings?

Submitted by MarioP79 t3_zz5oz1 in books

Posing this hypothetical to see what responses I get.

Suppose you wanted to present someone with two or more books that look at the same topic from differing viewpoints. What is the topic, and what books do you choose?

I would go with "An Empire of Wealth" by John Steele Gordon and "White Trash" by Nancy Isenberg, because of their different accounts of early America's economic development.

The first few chapters of "Empire" describe how the earliest Europeans took advantage of America's vast natural resources and geography, particularly in the Northeastern Colonies, to build an economic powerhouse, while "White Trash" points out that this economic powerhouse relied a lot on exploiting and marginalizing Europe's "outcasts", who were forcibly relocated to the New World.

I think these two books raise interesting questions about the cost that came with America's early economic development.

What topic would you choose, and what books would you pick to go with it?

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hippobiscuit t1_j29keyk wrote

The Road to Serfdom by Hayek and The Communist Manifesto by Marx

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Ashwagandalf t1_j29yuio wrote

I mean, that's like prime Ali vs. teenage, pre-Cus D'Amato Tyson. Make it Das Kapital, now...

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1404er t1_j29l6f8 wrote

Two Concepts of Liberty by Isaiah Berlin and Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil by Alain Badiou

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Open-Release-3077 t1_j29pem2 wrote

“What’s the Matter with Kansas?” By Thomas Frank and “The Righteous Mind” by Jonathan Haidt present two different arguments as it relates to why certain political groups (particularly conservatives) make the choices they make politically. Frank argues that conservatives make the choices they make not within what is their best economic interests. Haidt argues that conservatives ARE voting their interests because their bigger concern is what is taking place morally in the country.

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TS__Eliot t1_j29teo0 wrote

I think Paradise Lost and Lord Byron’s Cain present nice counterpoints to one another. Also, Kierkegaard’s Either/Or (especially Diary of a Deceiver) and Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra were the the first that came to mind, but these works aren’t so much two sides of a coin as they are two separate, winding paths to the same spot.

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chortlingabacus t1_j2b1ifz wrote

Don't suppose you'd say a bit more about latter comparison--? A long time since I read Kierkegaard & not read Nietzsche since uni so memory first brings forth theological difference between them and then the marked dissimilarity in writing style which makes in retrospect any similarities less apparent. Cheers.

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TS__Eliot t1_j2ba3q5 wrote

In short, their philosophies are both centred on the primacy of the individual agent, who determines his life trajectory via his own imposition of his own will onto the world around him. They’re both the grandfathers of existentialism, though Nietzsche’s approach predominates among the French and Kierkegaard among Heidegger and his phenomenologist “spiritual predecessors” though more recently (ie in the last 40 years or so) the French existialist-absurdist and the German Husserlian-Heideggerian streams have, to a great extent, recombined.

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chortlingabacus t1_j2d738b wrote

Very interesting; thank you for taking the time to post this. SK's influence on existentialism was apparent to me but not Nietzche's. Now I'm half-considering starting the new year by having another look at Unscientific Postscript (though if I'm going to go with something worthy, suspect I might be sidetracked by S. Weil further down the shelf).--Always nice to see a new connection made, especially one that isn't the likes of 'Wow, Stephen King and James Herbert both wrote stories about a deadly fog!' Happy new year.

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TS__Eliot t1_j2d7zpt wrote

In the classic French existential tradition Nietzsche looms very large, especially the explicit precedence of existence to essence, which is just a synthesis and concise restatement of what Nietzsche spent decades trying to say. It’s interesting that Kierkegaard has a stronger association with existentialism (I’m assuming you mean the French, ie Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus) for you because for Kierkegaard, Husserl and Heidegger the subject has a primary role in the definition and expression of his essence, but he is not wholly precedent to it, he has an inherent nature. Happy new year to you as well.

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4est_fire2063 t1_j29mrrm wrote

Gravity's Rainbow and Slaughterhouse Five

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stephlj t1_j2agf6m wrote

Twilight and Midnight Sun

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SectorEducational460 t1_j2exrrt wrote

Road to serfdom vs The general theory of employment, money, and interest. Not sure why the manifesto is being used. Even people of that particular persuasion would argue for Lenin state and revolution instead. Hell even the end of laissez faire: the economic consequence of the peace is better than the manifesto in a vs format.

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CycleResponsible7328 t1_j2apcc0 wrote

The Conspiracy Against The Human Race by Thomas Ligotti

-vs-

Night by Elie Wiesel

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