Most taught books at top American colleges

[JakeStarkey]

Here are the most taught books according to the article, which I thought was pretty good. The Tindall and Shi’s textbook,America: A Narrative History is superb according to friends who teach history in higher education. One learns from the past to try to direct the future in better directions. Supposedly.

These are the books students at the top US colleges are required to read

The leaders of tomorrow will be well versed in dead philosophers, according to a new database of college syllabi.

The Open Syllabus Project, a collection of over 1 million curricula from English-language colleges and universities over the past 15 years, released its data on Friday (Jan. 22). Plato, Hobbes, Machiavelli, and Aristotle overwhelmingly dominate lists in the US, particularly at the top schools.


The required readings skew toward the humanities—science and engineering classes tend to assign fewer titles—and not surprisingly, toward the Western canon.

In the US, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein is the most taught work of fiction, with Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales a close second. In history titles, George Brown Tindall and David Emory Shi’s textbook,America: A Narrative History, is No. 1, with Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi, a memoir about life as an African-American woman in Jim Crow America, at No. 2. The Communist Manifesto is the third most taught in history, and is the top title in sociology.

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

The leaders of tomorrow will be well versed in dead philosophers, according to a new database of college syllabi.

All a bit too hard for you, eh? Too many words?

 

[OldLady]

Believe it or not, as an English major, I had to read Pride and Prejudice x 3.

I liked reading Plato, Artistotle and Machiavelli. They pretty much defined basic premises of thought we still use, didn't they? Just because they're dead...as someone smart once said, There's nothing new under the sun.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Reading and writing about Chaucer and Keats and other great writers and philosophers made my soul aware that I would have no time for the narrowness of Mormon Utah and the Evangelical South.

 

[guno]

Will Stephanie chime in with her take and favorite philosophers

 

[Auld Phart]

Will guano claim to have read anything more intense than Dell, Marvel, DC, or Golden Comics?

 

[JakeStarkey]

Will guano claim to have read anything more intense than Dell, Marvel, DC, or Golden Comics?

Don't be knockin' DC, buddy.

 

[DGS49]

One benefit of reading the works of Dead White Men is that it teaches the students that contemporary people are not at all "smarter" than people who lived thousands of years ago. We now have more history to draw from, but that doesn't matter if we don't know our history.

The unfortunate thing is that Academe has elevated and celebrated the works of mediocre writers and artists from the past who happen to have been women and/or members of oppressed populations. The work should stand on its own...which in most cases it does not.

 

[OldLady]

One benefit of reading the works of Dead White Men is that it teaches the students that contemporary people are not at all "smarter" than people who lived thousands of years ago. We now have more history to draw from, but that doesn't matter if we don't know our history.

The unfortunate thing is that Academe has elevated and celebrated the works of mediocre writers and artists from the past who happen to have been women and/or members of oppressed populations. The work should stand on its own...which in most cases it does not.

What mediocre works are you thinking of, DG? Them's fighting words, ya know.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Here is the most stupid comment of the morning: "Academe has elevated and celebrated the works of mediocre writers and artists from the past who happen to have been women and/or members of oppressed populations."

 

[JakeStarkey]

One benefit of reading the works of Dead White Men is that it teaches the students that contemporary people are not at all "smarter" than people who lived thousands of years ago. We now have more history to draw from, but that doesn't matter if we don't know our history.

The unfortunate thing is that Academe has elevated and celebrated the works of mediocre writers and artists from the past who happen to have been women and/or members of oppressed populations. The work should stand on its own...which in most cases it does not.

What mediocre works are you thinking of, DG? Them's fighting words, ya know.

DG is talking about his own writings.

 

[OldLady]

Here's to Toni Morrison!

 

[rightwinger]

Here are the most taught books according to the article, which I thought was pretty good. The Tindall and Shi’s textbook,America: A Narrative History is superb according to friends who teach history in higher education. One learns from the past to try to direct the future in better directions. Supposedly.

These are the books students at the top US colleges are required to read

The leaders of tomorrow will be well versed in dead philosophers, according to a new database of college syllabi.

The Open Syllabus Project, a collection of over 1 million curricula from English-language colleges and universities over the past 15 years, released its data on Friday (Jan. 22). Plato, Hobbes, Machiavelli, and Aristotle overwhelmingly dominate lists in the US, particularly at the top schools.


The required readings skew toward the humanities—science and engineering classes tend to assign fewer titles—and not surprisingly, toward the Western canon.

In the US, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein is the most taught work of fiction, with Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales a close second. In history titles, George Brown Tindall and David Emory Shi’s textbook,America: A Narrative History, is No. 1, with Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi, a memoir about life as an African-American woman in Jim Crow America, at No. 2. The Communist Manifesto is the third most taught in history, and is the top title in sociology.

Harry Potter didn't make the list?

 

[psikeyhackr]

In the US, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein is the most taught work of fiction,

As the first true science fiction story I think a valid argument could be made for that, but considering what science and technology has done to society since then and must continue to do there are many newer works that are more relevant.

The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven would qualify in my opinion.

But our system of schooling is too traditional and focused on the European past instead of promoting futurism.

psik

 

[psikeyhackr]

Harry Potter didn't make the list?

I know a high school teacher with a pile of Harry Potter books on top of a cabinet. She tried to get her students to read them. They refused. LOL

psik

 

[OldLady]

They've all seen the movies. The one reason I was disappointed when I heard they were making movies from the series. Like Lord of the Rings, the writing and our imaginings are far richer than can ever be expressed by one director's vision.