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:

    “Now, of my threescore years and ten,
    Twenty will not come again,
    And take from seventy springs a score,
    It only leaves me fifty more.”
    —A.E. (Alfred Edward)

    “The worst of madmen is a saint run mad.”
    —Alexander Pope (1688–1744)

    “The study of tools as well as of books should have a place in the public schools. Tools, machinery, and the implements of the farm should be made familiar to every boy, and suitable industrial education should be furnished for every girl.”
    —Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)

    “Last night I watched my brothers play,
    The gentle and the reckless one,
    In a field two yards away.
    For half a century they were gone
    Beyond the other side of care
    To be among the peaceful dead.”
    —Edwin Muir (1887–1959)