What is some good reading material on human nature and how it is shaped and corrupted by society?

Question

Does anyone know of any books, articles or websites that have information on how human nature is corrpted and shaped by society

Answer 1

read 'The Corrections' by Jonathan Franzen.  It covers almost everything from every side.  He writes from the truth we don't all like to see, but can't deny.  It's a novel, but it's also a perfect time capsule of today, and how it's not the same as yesterday.  How people change, and ...too much ...just read it!

Answer 2

I think the Dune series by Frank Herbert is a good fictional epic of the human species and its bizarre potentials and how we are modified by them. It covers humans, machines, religion, Jihad, drugs, & gender among other things.

There used to be an excellent website called something like : www.schoolisdead.com

which explored how corrupting public school is to innocent children.

Answer 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_natur...

Human nature is the fundamental nature and substance of humans, as well as the range of human behavior that is believed to be invariant over long periods of time and across very different cultural contexts.

Answer 4

Read "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn. That's probably the best book on the subject.

Answer 5

human nature was already corrupted, with the fall.

check out Genisis, society is shaped by human nature.

Answer 6

Yes.  Get the book, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich."  It tells of Hitler's rise and fall as well as Germany's.  Try the library since it is an older book.  Also, try "The Diary of Ann Frank."  In case you don't know, she was a Jewish girl hiding with her family from the SS during WW2.  

Amazon.com has several books on Hitler.  You can also get books real cheap on www.half.com

Answer 7

What you are positing about humans is called " Romanticism " and has been utterly refuted by the modern study of human nature. I suggest that you get a real education, not a social science education. Start with " The Origin of Species " by Charles Darwin. I always am rather shocked by how you social scientists take the " blood " out of evolutionary theory and leave a dry husk behind.

Answer 8

Sounds like you might want to check out Max Weber, Jean-Jacques Rousseau or Karl Marx. Rousseau is perhaps most clearly associated with ideas about human nature being corrupted. If you want more modern ideas, read Bourdieu or Giddens, who talk about how humans shape and are shaped by their society at the same time.

You can search any of them on Wikipedia and get some interesting info, but I have to warn that Wikipedia is wrong almost as often as it is correct, and you should read the original literature (or the English translation anyway).

I do not know what to tell you about those who will post rubbish about 'original sin' or 'the apple'... ignore them?

Answer 9

first and foremost i would recommend the Bible.

then you can check out philosophy books from aristotle to modern publications.