Marginalia
Top Ten: Course Adoptions
In March the Seminary Co-op had received most of its course orders for the 2008–09 school year. Which books were included on the most different syllabi? Course-book manager Douglas Riggs provided the Core with an annotated rundown.
10. (tie) Discipline & Punish and The History of Sexuality,
I: An Introduction, both by Michel Foucault
It proved too difficult to tell which Foucault title is more ubiquitous. Both texts are translated from the French, the former by Alan Sheridan, the latter by Robert Hurley.
9. The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli
The preferred edition appears to be the University of Chicago Press second edition, translated from the Italian by Harvey Mansfield.
8. On Christian Liberty, Martin Luther (translated from the German by W. A. Lambert)
A favorite title for most Introduction to European Civilization history courses.
7. The Division of Labor in Society, Emile Durkheim
(translated from the French by W. D. Halls)
Another close call, this one narrowly beats out Durkheim’s The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (translated from the French by Karen Fields).
6. The Republic of Plato
The field appears to be very split regarding which edition is to be preferred. Perhaps Allan Bloom’s (PhB’49, AM’53, PhD’55) translation from the Greek.
5. The Marx-Engels Reader, Robert C. Tucker, editor
Students would struggle mightily not to encounter this text at some point in their undergraduate education at Chicago.
4. The Protestant Ethic & the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber
(translated from the German by Talcott Parsons)
3. The Souls of Black Folk, W. E. B. Du Bois
2. The Iliad, Homer
Opposing camps remain bitterly divided between translations by Lattimore (University of Chicago) and Fagles (Penguin Classic).
1. Inquiry into the Nature & Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
The defending champ hangs on to his crown.
