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":
- Margaret Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928)
- Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Soviet Communism: A New Civilization? (1935)
- Alfred Kinsey, et al., Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948)
- Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man (1964)
- 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":
- Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams (1907)
- C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (1947)
- Whittaker Chambers, Witness (1952)
- T. S. Eliot, Selected Essays, 1917-1932 (1932, 1950)
- Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History (1934-1961)
Read more about this topic: Intercollegiate Studies Institute
Famous quotes containing the words fifty, worst and/or books:
“You can hardly convince a man of an error in a life-time, but must content yourself with the reflection that the progress of science is slow. If he is not convinced, his grandchildren may be. The geologists tell us that it took one hundred years to prove that fossils are organic, and one hundred and fifty more to prove that they are not to be referred to the Noachian deluge.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The worst is not
So long as we can say, “This is the worst.””
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“What can books of men that wive
In a dragon-guarded land,
Paintings of the dolphin-drawn
Sea-nymphs in their pearly wagons
Do, but awake a hope to live...?”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)