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:
“... woman does not see what people of intellect perceived fifty years ago: that suffrage is an evil, that it has only helped to enslave people, that it has but closed their eyes that they may not see how craftily they were made to submit.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“The worst form of tyranny the world has ever known ... the tyranny of the weak over the strong. It is the only tyranny that lasts.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Even bad books are books and therefore sacred.”
—Günther Grass (b.1927)