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:

    “I almost wished that I was still in prison. I felt I wasn’t ready to be out making
    decisions.... Even now over three years after my release, I can carry around fifty rand for
    two weeks and not spend it. I go into shops, but I find it hard to choose things.”
    —Feziwe Bookholane (b. 1942)

    “I think the worst woman that ever existed would have made a man of very passable reputation—they are all better than us & their faults such as they are must originate with ourselves.”
    —George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)

    “What I am now warning the People of is, That the News-Papers of this Island are as pernicious to weak Heads in England as ever Books of Chivalry to Spain; and therefore shall do all that in me lies, with the utmost Care and Vigilance imaginable, to prevent these growing Evils.”
    —Richard Steele (1672–1729)

    “Whatever things a man gives up,
    By those he cannot suffer pain.”
    —Tiruvalluvar (c. 5th century A.D.)