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)

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

    “Every man who has lived for fifty years has buried a whole world or even two; he has grown used to its disappearance and accustomed to the new scenery of another act: but suddenly the names and faces of a time long dead appear more and more often on his way, calling up series of shades and pictures kept somewhere, “just in case” in the endless catacombs of the memory, making him smile or sigh, and sometimes almost weep.”
    —Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)

    “It was remarkable how easily he got along over the worst ground.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “All ... forms of consensus about “great” books and “perennial” problems, once stabilized, tend to deteriorate eventually into something philistine. The real life of the mind is always at the frontiers of “what is already known.” Those great books don’t only need custodians and transmitters. To stay alive, they also need adversaries. The most interesting ideas are heresies.”
    —Susan Sontag (b. 1933)

    “In the race for wealth, a neighbor tries to outdo his neighbor, but this strife is good for men. For the potter envies potter, and the carpenter the carpenter, and the beggar rivals the beggar, and the singer the singer.”
    —Hesiod (c. 8th century B.C.)