Ten Books Every Student Should Read in College

HUMAN EVENTS ^ | Week of June 2, 2003 | 28 distinguished scholars and university professors

[narby]

Only 10 on the list?

I think they should read at least 100. They've got 4 years to do it.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Baloney the anti-federalists were generally corrupt state officials seeking to preserve their power at the cost of the Union. Had they had their way the Union would have been still-born and destroyed in its cradle.

Their insipid writings are of little value other than examples of the idiocy which the true patriots, the Federalists, had to face. Their victory in overcoming this crew of meatheads was one of mankinds' greatest achievements.

[Carolina]

Posting the Honorable Mentions:

Honorable Mention

Natural Right and History
by Leo Strauss
38 points

The Conservative Mind
by Russell Kirk
36 points

A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War
by Harry V. Jaffa
33 points

Mere Christianity
by C.S. Lewis
32 points

The Illiad
by Homer
31 points

King Lear
by William Shakespeare
29 points

The Abolition of Man
by C.S. Lewis
27 points

Orthodoxy
by G.K. Chesterton
25 points

Aeneid
by Virgil
19 points

Hamlet
by William Shakespeare
18 points

Modern Times
by Paul Johnson
18 points

Oedipus Trilogy
by Sophocles
18 points

Ideas Have Consequences
by Richard Weaver
17 points

Idea of a University
by John Henry Newman
16 points

The Road to Serfdom
by Friedrich von Hayek
16 points

Animal Farm
by George Orwell
14 points

Gorgias
by Plato
14 points

A Humane Economy
by Wilhelm Roepke
14 points

The Public Philosophy
by Walter Lippman
14 points

The Roots of American Order
by Russell Kirk
14 points

[babyface00]

Most are available free online through Project Gutenberg:

1. The Bible
(http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext92/bible12.txt)

2. The Federalist Papers
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext91/feder16.txt

3. Democracy in America
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext97/1dina10.txt
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext97/2dina10.txt

4. The Divine Comedy
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext97/0ddcl10.txt

5. The Republic
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext94/repub13.txt

9. Confessions
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext02/tcosa10.txt

[So Cal Rocket]

The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx

Seriously... in order to defeat the other side, you have to understand where they're coming from.

[goldstategop]

Yeah... but I like old-fashioned books. :)

[Remedy]

BUMP!

[Dan from Michigan]

11 - Atlas Shrugged

12 - Anti-Federalist Papers

13 - Unintended Consequences by John Ross

[CGVet58]

b'n'k

[widowithfoursons]

Cicero wept for Rome, and never gave up the idea of its former greatness as a Republic. As Consul of Rome (President), he did all he could to reign in the excesses of mob rule (democracy). When he was finally assasinated, I think the spirit of the Republic died with him. I sure can't wait to chat with him one day.

[justshutupandtakeit]

A mediocre novel has no place in such a distinguished list of literature.

It wouldn't even make the list of top 100 novels. Maybe not even the top 1000. And, yes, I have read it and most of her other ones.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Ayn Rand is to literature as WJC is to ethics.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

I've read most of 6 of them. Can I get a passing grade?

[Aquinasfan]

I thought you might be interested to learn that Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics made the Top 10!

It's a good list, but the Summa Theologica has to come in at number two.

Then again, why go to college when you can buy these books on Amazon for $350? That's a savings of $55,650 off the MSRP...

[cornelis]

1. Revolt of the Masses by Jose Ortega y Gasset

Ortega ping. Not to forget Man and People; The Dehumanization of Art, and Norton's Phenomenology and Art

[upcountryhorseman]

I suggest Euclid on geometry

[DPB101]

There is some debate if Henry said that at all. He might have said, "I smell a ratification". No matter what, he was opposed to the bill of rights and the constitution. It took a while but he was eventually proven correct.

Elliot's Debates --Thursday, June 12, 1788

The tyranny of Philadelphia may be like the tyranny of George III. I believe this similitude will be incontestably proved before we conclude.

His amendments go to that despised thing, called a bill of rights, and all the rights which are dear to human nature--trial by jury, the liberty of religion and the press, &c. Do not gentlemen see that, if we adopt, under the idea of following Mr. Jefferson's opinion, we amuse ourselves with the shadow, while the substance is given away?

Under the abominable veil of political secrecy and contrivance, your most valuable rights may be sacrificed by a most corrupt faction, without having the satisfaction of knowing who injured you. They are bound by honor and conscience to act with integrity, but they are under no constitutional restraint . . .

Pass that government, and you will be bound hand and foot . . .

Pass this government, and you will be carried to the federal court, (if I understand that paper right,) and you will be compelled to pay shilling for shilling . . .

[bruin66]

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

Or Gracian's Manual

[Remedy]

Where is "It Takes a Village"?

Used as kindling to burn Earth In The Balance.

[Aquinasfan]

I agree with many of these, but this list is much to liberal arts oriented.

That's because the sciences of theology and philosophy are more important than the other sciences. Logically, the lesser sciences depend upon these higher sciences for their very definition.