Posted on 05/30/2003 11:45:30 AM PDT by Remedy
The editors of HUMAN EVENTS asked a panel of 28 distinguished scholars and university professors to serve as judges in developing a list of Ten Books Every Student Should Read in College.
To derive the list, each scholar first nominated titles. When all the nominations were collected-they amounted to more than 100 titles-HUMAN EVENTS then sent a ballot to the scholars asking each to list his or her Top Ten selections. A book was awarded ten points for receiving a No. 1 rating, 9 points for receiving a No. 2 rating, and so on. The ten books with the highest aggregate ratings made the list. We have also compiled an Honorable Mention list.
Interestingly enough, the No. 1 book our judges decided every college student should read is a volume that has been virtually banned in public schools by the United States Supreme Court. 1. The Bible Score: 116
Written: c. 1446 B.C. to c. A.D. 95
The Bible, the central work of Western Civilization, defines the relationship between God and man, and forms the foundation of faith in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Yet, today it is virtually banned in America's public primary and secondary schools-meaning many American students may not encounter the most important book of all time in a classroom setting until they reach college. 2. The Federalist Papers Score: 106
Authors: Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison
Written: October 1787 to May 1788
Written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, The Federalist Papers first appeared in several New York state newspapers as a series of 85 essays published under the nom de plume "Publius" from the fall of 1787 to the spring of 1788.
The purpose of The Federalist Papers was to garner support for the newly created Constitution. At the time the states were bound together under the Articles of Confederation, but the weakness of the Articles necessitated the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Once the Constitution was drafted, nine states were required to ratify it, so Hamilton, Jay, and Madison took up the effort to persuade skeptics. Because Hamilton and Madison were both members of the Constitutional Convention, their writings are instructive in divining the original intent of those who drafted the Constitution.
According to the Library of Congress, the first bound edition of The Federalist Papers was published in 1788 with revisions and corrections by Hamilton. A bound edition with revisions and corrections by Madison published in 1818 was the first to identify the authors of each essay. 3. Democracy in America Score: 80
Author: Alexis de Tocqueville
Written: 1835
A left-leaning Frenchman who visited America in 1831, de Tocqueville produced an incisive portrait of American political and social life in the early 19th Century. He praised the democratic ideals and private virtues of the American people but warned against what he saw as the tyrannical tendency of public opinion. Visiting during the heyday of slavery, de Tocqueville foresaw the troubles racial questions would pose for the country. He also was early in observing that judicial power had a tendency to usurp the political in the United States. He also wrote of the difficulties inherent in the egalitarian sentiment then gaining strength in America. "However energetically society in general may strive to make all the citizens equal and alike, the personal pride of each individual will always make him try to escape from the common level, and he will form some inequality somewhere to his own profit," he said. 4. The Divine Comedy Score: 57
Author: Dante Alighieri
Written: A.D. 1306-1321
One of the most frequently cited poems of all time, this epic allegory is an amalgam of Dante's views of science, theology, astronomy, and philosophy. In it Dante recounts his imaginary journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, during which he realizes his hatred for his sin and becomes a changed man by the grace of God.
The work contains three sections-"Inferno," "Purgatorio," and "Paradiso." In "Inferno," Dante journeys through Hell, led by the soul of the Roman poet Virgil. He describes Hell as a funnel-shaped pit divided into nine circles, each one a place for those people guilty of a particular sin, with suffering increasing as he descends to the bottom where Satan himself dwells.
In "Purgatorio," Dante travels with Virgil up the Mount of Purgatory. Ten terraces make up the Mount and the process of purification for its occupants is arduous as they climb from terrace to terrace. When Dante and Virgil pass the final terrace, they glimpse Paradise where Beatrice, Dante's first love, awaits and Virgil is forced to depart.
In "Paradiso," Beatrice guides Dante through the various levels of Paradise. At the highest level, Empyrean, where God, Mary, and many of the angels and saints abide, Dante views the light of God, which leaves him speechless and changed. 5. The Republic Score: 55
Author: Plato
Written: c. 360 B.C.
The Republic is likely the most important work of the most important and influential philosopher who ever lived. The writings of Plato, a disciple of Socrates in ancient Athens, provide the foundation of abstract thought for all of Western Civilization, and The Republic contains expositions of various theories of justice, the state and society, and the soul. Is justice a matter of being helpful to those who help you and harmful to those who harm you? Or is it simply the "interest of the stronger," defined by those who govern the rest of us, as post-modern leftists would have it? How should society be organized? How is the human soul structured? How may we arrive at truth? The first author in history to deal with such questions in systematic rational argument, Plato contrasts the ideal society with reality in a way later echoed in the City of God (No. 7) by St. Augustine-who explored his own soul in his Confessions (No. 9). Plato describes the first totalitarian utopia as part of his argument, the first of many thinkers to do so. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated among men of thought." 6. The Politics Score: 54
Author: Aristotle
Written: Fourth Century, B.C.
Aristotle, the most famous student of Plato, is one of the few men who managed to be highly appreciated both in his own time (he was hired to tutor Alexander the Great) and by posterity. His philosophy continues to form the backbone of Western thought. Much of his writing was lost for centuries, but its recovery helped Thomas Aquinas, in the 13th Century, and later political philosophers, develop the concept of natural law that became central to the Anglo-American understanding of just and limited government. Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson cited Aristotle as an inspiration for the Declaration of Independence.
In the Politics, Aristotle examines the formation and composition of civil society more simply and effectively than perhaps anyone since. Beginning with a complete accounting of the elements in the basic unit of society-the oikos or family home-the philosopher expands outward to discuss the larger unit of human existence, the city-state-or polis-in the same terms. 7. Nicomachaean Ethics Score: 52
Author: Aristotle
Written: Fourth Century, B.C.
The Ethics is a collection of notes from Aristotle's lectures, taken by his student Nicomachus. The Ethics' elegant inductive arguments, developed hundreds of years before the Christian era, proved that man can indeed understand the basic concepts of good and evil without the aid of Divine Revelation-a fact that many leftists are unwilling to accept in their quest to destroy respect for objective rules of right and wrong.
Unlike today's secularists, Aristotle saw clearly that all human beings have a built-in need to pursue happiness through behaving properly. Aristotle analyzes why not all human actions lead to happiness, and reveals how a man's daily choices between good and evil result in the habits of virtue or vice. Virtuous action, he concludes, makes men happy, whereas vice does not. 7. City of God Score: 52
Author: St. Augustine of Hippo
Written: A.D. 413-426
The City of God ranks as history's most influential writing by a theologian. Augustine, the cultured bishop of an ancient Roman city in North Africa, created a philosophy of history that answered the argument of pagans who blamed the decline of Rome on the rise of Christianity. (Rome had first been sacked in 410.) Augustine explained human history in terms of Divine Providence and asserted that the Church would bring human history to its final consummation. At that consummation, the two "cities" that remained intermingled on Earth-the pure, virtuous city of God and the sinful, flawed city of man-would be separated into two. Augustine argued that the sinful practices of the pagan Romans helped prompt God to allow the Eternal City's capture by barbarians. Augustine firmly implants teleology-the Aristotelian idea that all things have an ultimate purpose-into history just as previous Christian thinkers had adopted teleology to explain God's plan for individual human beings. For Augustine, all of human history points toward a divine purpose. 9. Confessions Score: 47
Author: St. Augustine of Hippo
Written: c. A.D. 400
The Confessions is Augustine's spiritual autobiography. Addressed to God, the book bares the author's soul. Here Augustine explains the history of his life in terms of Divine Providence, much as in the City of God he explained the history of Rome. He owns up to the sins that pulled him away from faith despite the exertions of his intensely devout mother, St. Monica. In the course of describing both his exterior and interior life, Augustine reiterates the Christian philosophy of the human person expounded by St. Paul in his epistles. He describes the interplay among passion, will, and reason and attempts to explain why men do evil when they know better. 10. Reflections on the Revolution in France Score: 44
Author: Edmund Burke
Written: 1790
An Irish-born British politician of the late 18th Century, who was popular in America because of his opposition to taxing the colonies, Burke holds a prominent place in the history of English-speaking conservatives. Indeed, in The Conservative Mind, Russell Kirk singled him out as the first modern conservative intellectual.
Burke's early and energetic disapproval of the French Revolution proved prophetic in light of the Reign of Terror that followed. A champion of the inherent wisdom of long-settled traditions, Burke argued that by violently ripping up their nation's institutions root and branch, the French had assured themselves years of chaos.
If changes had to be made in France, he argued, could not the tried-and-true be kept and only the bad discarded? "Is it, then, true," he asked, "that the French government was such as to be incapable or undeserving of reform, so that it was of absolute necessity that the whole fabric should be at once pulled down and the area cleared for the erection of a theoretic, experimental edifice in its place?"
War, Politics and Power : Von Clauswitz
The Art of War: Sun Tzu
The Prince : Nicolo Machiavelli
Applies to business and war as well as politics.
I would add the following for the following reasons:
"Slouching Towards Gomorrah" - Robert Bork
It addresses liberalism and conservatism in contexts of modern society. Bork outlines the rationalism behind the application of conservative principles in a manner that expanding minds should embrace. Unlike liberal tomes that tell their readers what to think, Bork encourages his readers to think for themselves.
"Communist Manifesto" - Marx / Engles
"How do you tell a Communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin."
The Letters of Thomas Jefferson: BONAPARTE AND PLATO To John Adams Monticello, July 5, 1814
2. I want it "Cheap"
3. I want it "Right"
Your response please.
Pick two.
Give old Plato credit for trying. I am coming to doubt there was an actual person, that Plato was just some tracts written by students at the Academy. Kind of like Carlos Castaneda.
an enigma wrapped in a paradox, embedded in a quandary, concieved by group-think…?
My son goes to Cornell now. There are lots of things not to like, as far as I am concerned, but your post paints a very distorted picture.
Maybe they gave a course like this. I know I laughed at some of the courses given this spring as I looked over the catalogue for classes to sit in on during my three day visit. But this is 2% of the stuff they offer. There were probably 50 courses that interested me. I probably had 20 classes offered to me. (Reasons of the other 30 not being offered mostly had to do with my not asking, tests being given, or classes not meeting when I was going to be there.) I prepared for a dozen or so, and actually sat in on ten. At least four that I recall discussed one of the books on this top-ten list for all or part of the class.
The only class I sat in on that might make an article like the one you quote was called "Popular Culture," or something like that. (And I only sat in on this class because I had an open hour on my final day, and the group of students I had dinner with two nights before had recommended it.) It turned out that this class had one of the most conservative messages of any I took. Basically it was, "Don't trust Peter Jennings."
ML/NJ
Yes. Could be.
My son goes to Cornell now. There are lots of things not to like, as far as I am concerned, but your post paints a very distorted picture.
Apparently they have cleaned up their act since the Oct, 1998 article was written by Accuracy In Academia.
On September 17, President Bush delivered a speech on Teaching American History and Civic Education in which he cited recent reports showing "large and disturbing gaps" in American students' knowledge of history. Links to these surveys are provided by NEH on a web page entitled Evidence of American Amnesia, part of the official web site for the White House's "We the People" initiative to be administered by NEH.
Following are some of the surveys cited on the NEH site:
(September, 2002), a report released by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni which "found that none of the nation's top 50 colleges and universities require students to study American history and only 10% require students to study history at all". The report was authored by Ann Neal and Jerry Martin. Restoring America's Legacy .
In 2000, Neal and Martin authored the ACTA report, "Losing America's Memory: Historical Illiteracy in the 21st Century" which provided part of the impetus for Congress' creation of the $150 million Teaching American History program within the Department of Education.
American's Knowledge of the U.S. Constitution (May, 2002), a nationwide survey commissioned by Columbia Law School which "revealed that an alarming number of voting age Americans have serious misconceptions about the Constitution and Bill of Rights".
2001 U.S. History National Assessment of Education Progress a report compiled by the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, which found that 57% of 12th Graders scored "below basic" levels, and that more students performed "below basic" on the history test than any other NAEP subject, including math and science.
...in 2000, ACTA released its eye-opening report, Losing America's Memory: Historical Illiteracy in the 21st Century, Authors: Jerry L. Martin, Ph.D., President, ACTA Anne D. Neal, V.P. & General Counsel, ACTA
A stunning report revealing 81% of seniors from the top 55 U.S. colleges and universities failed a high school level history exam; even worse, that none of the institutions surveyed requires a course in American history, and three-quarters require no history at all. The report inspired Congress to pass a joint resolution calling for a national response and the Education Leadership Council to adopt a resolution to address America's historical amnesia. Over 800 news stories reported on the study.
Rand tried to write an allegory; she ended up writing a sermon.
Compare Atlas Shrugged to Moby Dick which is also an allegory and Rands writing deficiency is pronounced.
I always though of it as an ironic satire.
Go to the library and take out The Call of The Wild by Jack London. It's a short story (about 70 pages). Give it a shot, I'll bet you will enjoy it.
My daughter is finishing her sophomore year in homeschool, and has read all but 4 of the books. She has not read "The Federalist Papers", "Democracy in America", "The Politics", and "Reflections on the Revolution in France."
She has been receiving a classical education since 8th grade. She is thinking about a degree in Great Books. She would like to teach at the college level. Needless to say, she also writes; she has a job writing for a horse magazine.
My son is in a debate club, and debated the resolution, RESOLVED: The United States should significantly change its trade poicy within one or both of the following areas, the Middle East and/or Africa. He debated both affirmative and negative positions in every tournament. This was his first year, starting when he was 13 yo. In one tournament, he and his same age partner went 3-3. We were quite pleased. It is a national Christian homeschool speech and debate league. The competitors are quite impressive! Everyone should hear these students, aged 12-18, to see what children of this age group are capable of doing.
Children in this age group are able to learn government, trade, and foreign policy, economics, and the skills to debate. For the most part, America has forgotten what can be achieved by their children. Too many parents have very limited expectations, and have given up the job of parenting.
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