Works You Should Know
In 1991, historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. wrote to the editors of "The Reader's Companion: A Book Lover's Guide to the Most Important Books in Every Field of Knowledge as Chosen by Experts" to recommend books he thought Americans should read to achieve cultural literacy about our own nation. Here is his list:
| Book | Author |
|---|---|
| Essays | Ralph Waldo Emerson |
| Speeches and Writings | Abraham Lincoln |
| Democracy in America | Alexis de Tocqueville |
| The American Commonwealth | James Bryce |
| The Irony of American History | Reinhold Niebuhr |
| The Shock of Recognition | Edmund Wilson |
| An American Dilemma | Gunnar Myrdal |
| The Promise of American Life | Herbert Croly |
| Pragmatism | William James |
| The Education of Henry Adams | Henry Adams |
| The American Language | H.L. Mencken |
Our Choices
Thus inspired, our program faculty presents its own lists of works (primarily books, but also films and albums) that we feel every American — or at least every undergraduate major in American studies — should know.
Joyce Antler, Professor Emerita of American Studies
| Book | Author |
|---|---|
| A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 | Laurel Thatcher Ulrich |
| Woman in the 19th Century | Margaret Fuller |
| Walden | Henry David Thoreau |
| Uncle Tom's Cabin; Or, Life Among the Lowly | Harriet Beecher Stowe |
| Experience and Education | John Dewey |
| Twenty Years at Hull House | Jane Addams |
| Their Eyes Were Watching God | Zora Neale Hurston |
| Adam's Rib (screenplay) | George Cukor, director; Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, screenplay |
| The Feminine Mystique | Betty Friedan |
| The Education of Henry Adams | Henry Adams |
Jacob Cohen, Professor of American Studies
| Book | Author |
|---|---|
| Democracy in America (both volumes) | Alexis de Tocqueville |
| The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America | Daniel Boorstin |
| The Omni-Americans: Black Experience and American Culture | Albert Murray |
| Americanism: The Fourth Great Western Religion | Daniel Gelernter |
| The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations | Christopher Lasch |
| Coolidge / Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression (two selections by same author) | Amity Shlaes |
| Dangerous Nation: America's Place in the World from Its Earliest Days to the Dawn of the 20th Century | Robert Kagan |
| Henry Adams and the Making of America | Gary Wills |
| Lincoln's Tragic Pragmatism: Lincoln, Douglas and Moral Conflict | John Burt |
| Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism | Ronald J. Pestritto |
Thomas Doherty, Professor of American Studies
| Film | Director |
|---|---|
| The Birth of a Nation | D.W. Griffith |
| The Jazz Singer | Alan Crosland |
| King Kong | Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper (co-creators) |
| The Wizard of Oz | Victor Fleming and others |
| Citizen Kane | Orson Welles |
| Why We Fight (series) | Frank Capra and Anatole Litvak |
| The Best Years of Our Lives | William Wyler |
| The Asphalt Jungle | John Huston |
| The Searchers | John Ford |
| Psycho | Alfred Hitchcock |
| The Godfather / The Godfather: Part II | Francis Ford Coppola |
Brian Donahue, Professor of American Studies
| Book | Author |
|---|---|
| Walden | Henry David Thoreau |
| Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Mark Twain |
| Technics and Civilization | Lewis Mumford |
| My Ántonia | Willa Cather |
| Dust Bowl Ballads (album) | Woody Guthrie |
| The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin | Benjamin Franklin |
| Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass | Frederick Douglass |
| The Band (album) | The Band |
| Angle of Repose | Wallace Stegner |
| The Poetry of Robert Frost | Robert Frost |
Maura Jane Farrelly, Associate Professor of American Studies
| Book | Author |
|---|---|
| Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God | Jonathan Edwards |
| Common Sense | Thomas Paine |
| The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano | Olaudah Equiano |
| The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin | Benjamin Franklin |
| Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience) | Henry David Thoreau |
| Ain't I a Woman? | Sojourner Truth (with Frances Dana Barker Gage) |
| Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Mark Twain |
| An American Tragedy | Theodore Dreiser |
| The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck |
| The Feminine Mystique | Betty Friedan |
Paula Musegades, Assistant Professor of American Studies and Music
| ’50s and ’60s Pop Album (year released) | Musician |
|---|---|
| Elvis Presley (1956) | Elvis Presley |
| Chuck Berry Is on Top (1959) | Chuck Berry |
| Kind of Blue (1959) | Miles Davis |
| King of Delta Blues Singers (1961) | Robert Johnson |
| Live at the Apollo (1963) | James Brown |
| Highway 61 Revisted (1965) | Bob Dylan |
| My Generation (1965) | The Who |
| Pet Sounds (1966) | The Beach Boys |
| Revolver (1966) | The Beatles |
| The Doors (1967) | The Doors |
Stephen Whitfield, Max Richter Professor Emeritus of American Studies
| Book | Author |
|---|---|
| The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin | Benjamin Franklin |
| Democracy in America | Alexis de Tocqueville |
| Leaves of Grass | Walt Whitman |
| Lincoln: Speeches and Writings | Abraham Lincoln |
| The Souls of Black Folk | W.E.B. Du Bois |
| The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States | H.L. Mencken |
| Absalom, Absalom! | William Faulkner |
| Death of a Salesman (play) | Arthur Miller |
| The Lonely Crowd | David Riesman et al. |
| The Autobiography of Malcolm X | Malcolm X (as told to Alex Haley) |