June 07, 2005

Top Ten Books Every Student Should Read While in College

Human Events Online, two years ago, contacted twenty-eight scholars to ask them what ten books every college student should read. They explain the weighting given to the compiled lists, and the rationale for each book. Here's the straight list:

  1. The Bible
  2. Alexander Hamilton, et al, The Federalist Papers
  3. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
  4. Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
  5. Plato, The Republic
  6. Aristotle, The Politics
  7. (tie) Aristotle, Nicomachaean Ethics
  8. (tie) St. Augustine, City of God
  9. St. Augustine, Confessions
  10. Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

And here are the honorable mentions, according to ranking:

  • Natural Right and History by Leo Strauss
  • The Conservative Mind by Russell Kirk
  • A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War by Harry V. Jaffa
  • Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
  • The Illiad by Homer
  • King Lear by William Shakespeare
  • The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis
  • Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
  • Aeneid by Virgil
  • Hamlet by William Shakespeare
  • Modern Times by Paul Johnson
  • Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles
  • Ideas Have Consequences by Richard Weaver
  • Idea of a University by John Henry Newman
  • The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich von Hayek
  • Animal Farm by George Orwell
  • Gorgias by Plato
  • A Humane Economy by Wilhelm Roepke
  • The Public Philosophy by Walter Lippman
  • The Roots of American Order by Russell Kirk
Posted by Clifton at June 7, 2005 08:40 AM | TrackBack
Comments

hmmm...animal farm in the midst. interesting.

Posted by: earcandycritic at June 7, 2005 09:49 AM

I have read six of these books if you include a healthy dose of the honorables.

Posted by: Tripp at June 7, 2005 10:22 AM

Tripp:

The Bible wasn't one of them, was it?! ;-)

Posted by: Clifton D. Healy at June 7, 2005 11:33 AM

Yep. It was.

Thus explaining so very much.

Posted by: Tripp at June 7, 2005 11:46 AM

Here is what I read from the list.

The Bible
The Illiad by Homer - some in the original Greek
Aeneid by Virgil - some in the original Latin
Hamlet by William Shakespeare - also read in High School
Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles
Animal Farm by George Orwell - also read in High School

Posted by: Tripp at June 7, 2005 11:49 AM

Here are mine:

The Bible
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
Plato, The Republic
Aristotle, The Politics
Aristotle, Nicomachaean Ethics
St. Augustine, Confessions

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
The Illiad by Homer
King Lear by William Shakespeare
The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis
Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Modern Times by Paul Johnson
Ideas Have Consequences by Richard Weaver
The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich von Hayek
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Gorgias by Plato

Posted by: Clifton D. Healy at June 7, 2005 11:57 AM

Wow.

Literate thou art.

Cool.

Posted by: Tripp at June 7, 2005 12:03 PM