Intercollegiate Studies Institute - Fifty Worst (and Best) Books of The Century

Fifty Worst (and Best) Books of The Century

ISI published in 1999 a list of the fifty books that they consider the worst and the fifty that they consider the best, among the nonfiction books of the 20th century originally published in English. ISI defined the "worst" books as those that were "...widely celebrated in their day," but on reflection are "...foolish, wrong-headed, or even pernicious." The list of worst books has several books in common with the list of harmful books published by the conservative magazine Human Events.

The top five "very worst":

  1. Margaret Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928)
  2. Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Soviet Communism: A New Civilization? (1935)
  3. Alfred Kinsey, et al., Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948)
  4. Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man (1964)
  5. John Dewey, Democracy and Education (1916)

ISI defined "best" as "volumes of extraordinary reflection and creativity in a traditional form, which heartens us with the knowledge that fine writing and clear-mindedness are perennially possible."

The top five "very best":

  1. Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams (1907)
  2. C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (1947)
  3. Whittaker Chambers, Witness (1952)
  4. T. S. Eliot, Selected Essays, 1917-1932 (1932, 1950)
  5. Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History (1934-1961)

Read more about this topic:  Intercollegiate Studies Institute

Famous quotes containing the words fifty, worst, books and/or century:

    “For a hundred and fifty years, in the pasture of dead horses,
    roots of pine trees pushed through the pale curves of your ribs,
    yellow blossoms flourished above you in autumn, and in winter
    frost heaved your bones in the ground—old toilers, soil makers:
    O Roger, Mackerel, Riley, Ned, Nellie, Chester, Lady Ghost.”
    —Donald Hall (b. 1928)

    “The worst readers are those who behave like plundering soldiers: they take away a few things they can use, soil and jumble what remains, and slander the whole.”
    —Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    “Proverbs, like the sacred books of each nation, are the sanctuary of the intuitions. That which the droning world, chained to appearances, will not allow the realist to say in his own words, it will suffer him to say in proverbs without contradiction.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “In front of that sinner of a husband,
    she rattled off
    only those words
    that her pack of vile-tongued girlfriends
    taught her
    as fast as she could,
    and after,
    began to behave
    at the Love-god’s beck and call.
    It’s indescribable,
    this natural, charming
    path of love,
    paved with the gems
    of inexperience.”
    —Amaru (c. seventh century A.D.)