If getting reading suggestions from celebrities is just a little too middlebrow for your tastes, these seven book recommendations from Ivy League professors are just what you've been looking for. Business Insider asked professors from U.S. News & World Report's 10 best American colleges to recommend "the single book they think every student should read in 2017," and their suggestions run the gamut from classic literature to philosophies of warfare.
Published Sunday, Business Insider's list contains book recommendations from professors at just five of those Top 10 schools: Princeton (No. 1), Harvard (No. 2), the University of Chicago (No. 3, tie), Yale (No. 3, tie), and the University of Pennsylvania (No. 8, tie). Recommenders include former New York Times editor Jill Abramson and noted reading-guide author Harold Bloom.
Already read these titles and looking for more book recommendations from Ivy League professors? Check out The Open Syllabus Project (OSP), which collects required reading lists from university programs around the world. In case you're wondering just how cool this resource might be, take note: for its Syllabus of the Month in September 2016, the OSP chose a 1994 University of Chicago course, "Current Issues in Racism and the Law," taught by future POTUS Barack Obama.
(Just add the books on that list to your long TBR from President Obama.)
Check out the seven book recommendations from Ivy League professors below, and share your favorite professor-approved titles with me on Twitter!
1
'The Paranoid Style in American Politics' by Richard Hofstadter, recommended by Jill Abramson, Harvard
Harvard English lecturer Jill Abramson recommends this collection of essays from Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Richard Hofstadter. Read the titular essay in this collection online at Harper's.
2
'Orfeo' by Richard Powers, recommended by James Berger, Yale
Yale English and American Studies lecturer James Berger recommends Orfeo, Richard Powers' "Orpheus and Eurydice" retelling, which centers on a modern-day composer who turns to biological science to craft his magnum opus.
3
'The Undoing Project' by Michael Lewis, recommended by Eric Maskin, Harvard, and Maurice Schweitzer, University of Pennsylvania
In The Undoing Project, The Big Short author Michael Lewis explores the relationship between two psychologists, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who wrote extensively on human thought and decision-making processes. According to Harvard's Eric Maskin and the University of Pennsylvania's Maurice Schweitzer, The Undoing Project is the one book that college students should read this year.
4
'The Strategy of Conflict' by Thomas C. Schelling, recommended by David B. Carter, Princeton
This book on game theory by Nobel laureate in economics Thomas C. Schelling is the top recommendation from Princeton prof David B. Carter.
5
'A Theory of the Drone' by Grégoire Chamayou, recommended by W.J.T. Mitchell, University of Chicago
Grégoire Chamayou's A Theory of the Drone examines how remote-controlled weapons are currently changing the way we think about, and conduct, warfare. W.J.T. Mitchell, a professor of English and art history at the University of Chicago, calls the book, "[a] very intelligent assessment of the new conditions of drone warfare in their implications for just war theory and notions of military valor."
6
'Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life' by Karen E. Fields and Barbara J. Fields, recommended by Kenneth Warren, University of Chicago
Do racial differences cause racism, or does racism create the illusion of racial difference? Sister scholars Karen E. Fields and Barbara J. Fields examine this critical question in Racecraft, recommended by the University of Chicago's Kenneth Warren.
7
"All of Shakespeare," recommended by Harold Bloom, Yale
This recommendation from one of the country's most famous literary critics comes as no surprise. Yale's Harold Bloom says students should read "all of Shakespeare," and who are we to argue?
