"The Hoax of the 20th Century: The Case Against the Presumed Extermination of European Jewry" is a controversial nonfiction book because it takes the point of view that all the factual information that exists regarding the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust is a myth. This is the bible for the growing legion of those who have earned the title Holocaust Denier. The author, Arthur R. Butz, is an associate professor of electrical engineering at Northwestern University. Nearly every argument Butz makes in his book has been debunked by John C. Zimmerman in his book "Holocaust Denial: Demographics, Testimonies and Ideologies."
"Holy Blood, Holy Grail" by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln, is the book that inspired one of the most controversial fictional books of the 21th century, "The Da Vinci Code." The book proposes the very controversial idea that Jesus Christ had a sexual relationship with Mary Magdalene that produced offspring and that the bloodline of that offspring lives among society today. The central message of the book, therefore, is that Jesus was entirely human, did not die on the cross and was not resurrected. Making the book even more controversial is that much of what was passed off as fact was gleaned from information that was eventually revealed to be nothing more than an elaborate hoax.
"On the Origin of Species" by Charles Darwin has the distinction of being a controversial nonfiction book for a century and a half. This is the bible of evolutionary theory and it is held up as pure fiction by those who believe the Holy Bible is a literal interpretation of the creation of the universe. Ideas from Charles Darwin's books were included in a textbook taught by John Scopes that resulted in the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial, and even today efforts have been undertaken to keep some school districts from teaching the ideas of evolution contained in "On the Origin of Species." In 2009, former child television star and current evangelical Christian propagandist Kirk Cameron issued a new version of the book with a 50-page introduction that attempts to link Darwin's tome to everything from Nazism to anti-feminism.