What are the five most seminal books in whatever field you're interested
September 6, 2013 7:05 AM Subscribe
Imagine you're allowed to give a nobel prize for five of the most seminal books of the past 50-60 years in whatever field you're interested and/or invested in. What would they be?
The Nobel is usually given out to applied research and application and theory is eschewed. In this case you can give it to theoretical works as well.
I'm on an academic book spree and looking for the most seminal books in different academic areas. I've narrowed it down to the past 50 years but it's not exactly a hard and fast rule, so you can pick something within the past 60. And by seminal I mean works that have led to substantial changes in the field--paradigm shifts if you want it call it that--and have been major contributions. Generally I'm looking for books published by Academic PResses as it gives them a certain credibility and legitimacy although there have been vast important works written for more mainstream publishers (see Putnam's Bowling Alone, for example). Honestly, I'd just like to know the five most important works in various disciplines that have guided the trajectory of that field of knowledge and opened things up in a new way.
Here is an example from a field I like:
Political Science
1. Logic of Collective Action by Mancur Olson (Why collective action is prone to failure)
2. An Economic Theory of Democracy by Anthony Downs (Applied the logic of economics to elucidate problems in Democratic participation)
3. Who Governs by Robert Dahl (Great work of applied political science that set the standard for nearly all work afterwards)
4. Governing the Commons by Elinor Ostrom (she won the Nobel Prize for this) (scrupulous take on the way communities avoid the the tragedy of the commons phenonomenon noted by Garrett Hardin)
5. Congress by David Mayhew (Elegant work of theory and empirical analysis on that venerable political institution. The assumption that political agents seek first to be re-elected was a seminal moment in simplifying the intentions of political agents that helped improve american political theory)
I am sure linguistics would include something by Chomsky like Syntatctic Structures while economics seems to me more about writing articles as I'm not sure what great academic books have been published in that field.
You can narrow it down and make the field as specific as you'd like. Hell, I'd be fine reading about Gaelic Literature as well.
I'm on an academic book spree and looking for the most seminal books in different academic areas. I've narrowed it down to the past 50 years but it's not exactly a hard and fast rule, so you can pick something within the past 60. And by seminal I mean works that have led to substantial changes in the field--paradigm shifts if you want it call it that--and have been major contributions. Generally I'm looking for books published by Academic PResses as it gives them a certain credibility and legitimacy although there have been vast important works written for more mainstream publishers (see Putnam's Bowling Alone, for example). Honestly, I'd just like to know the five most important works in various disciplines that have guided the trajectory of that field of knowledge and opened things up in a new way.
Here is an example from a field I like:
Political Science
1. Logic of Collective Action by Mancur Olson (Why collective action is prone to failure)
2. An Economic Theory of Democracy by Anthony Downs (Applied the logic of economics to elucidate problems in Democratic participation)
3. Who Governs by Robert Dahl (Great work of applied political science that set the standard for nearly all work afterwards)
4. Governing the Commons by Elinor Ostrom (she won the Nobel Prize for this) (scrupulous take on the way communities avoid the the tragedy of the commons phenonomenon noted by Garrett Hardin)
5. Congress by David Mayhew (Elegant work of theory and empirical analysis on that venerable political institution. The assumption that political agents seek first to be re-elected was a seminal moment in simplifying the intentions of political agents that helped improve american political theory)
I am sure linguistics would include something by Chomsky like Syntatctic Structures while economics seems to me more about writing articles as I'm not sure what great academic books have been published in that field.
You can narrow it down and make the field as specific as you'd like. Hell, I'd be fine reading about Gaelic Literature as well.
FiveBooks.com is a website you will like. It does not fit your criteria exactly, but the picks come close and has hundreds of lists accompanied by discussions with the list writers.
posted by michaelh at 7:46 AM on September 6, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by michaelh at 7:46 AM on September 6, 2013 [4 favorites]
You might like this previous question:
what book is the best introduction to your field?
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:08 AM on September 6, 2013 [3 favorites]
what book is the best introduction to your field?
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:08 AM on September 6, 2013 [3 favorites]
These were pretty groundbreaking for (some fields of) Anthropology/Sociology when they were written. Anthropology is such a huge field that....well. It's huge.
1. Mary Douglas: Purity and Danger (1966)
2. Erving Goffman: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (the first book to treat one on one interaction as sociology) published in 1961
3. Clifford Geertz: The Interpretation of Culture (a 1973 book of his essays from the 60s)
4. Claude Levi-Strauss: Myth and Meaning (1978)
5. Anne Fausto-Sterling: Myths About Gender (1992) Ok, so she's a developmental geneticist, but it's used in anthropological/sociological introductions to sex and gender.
I am also known to go on and on about the fundamental attribution error demonstated by Jones and Harris in the late 60s.
posted by bilabial at 8:15 AM on September 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
1. Mary Douglas: Purity and Danger (1966)
2. Erving Goffman: The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (the first book to treat one on one interaction as sociology) published in 1961
3. Clifford Geertz: The Interpretation of Culture (a 1973 book of his essays from the 60s)
4. Claude Levi-Strauss: Myth and Meaning (1978)
5. Anne Fausto-Sterling: Myths About Gender (1992) Ok, so she's a developmental geneticist, but it's used in anthropological/sociological introductions to sex and gender.
I am also known to go on and on about the fundamental attribution error demonstated by Jones and Harris in the late 60s.
posted by bilabial at 8:15 AM on September 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
Bruno Latour Reassembling the social
Howard S. Becker Art Worlds
(Maybe my tastes are too humble...)
posted by Namlit at 8:34 AM on September 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
Howard S. Becker Art Worlds
(Maybe my tastes are too humble...)
posted by Namlit at 8:34 AM on September 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
I tried to give a list for philosophy, but then I realized I really couldn't give any 5-member list that I would be satisfied with given how large the field is (particularly if constrained to only choosing books). I think if you're going to do this in philosophy, a much more accurate list is only going to come when you pick a sub-field within it.
So, here's what I believe is a pretty accurate list of the essential classics of proof-theory:
1. Prior, The Runabout Inference Ticket (1960)
2. Belnap, Tonk, Plonk, and Plink (1961-62)
3. Gentzen, Investigations into Logical Deduction, 1964 (First translated, originally published in German in the 30's)
4. Prawitz, Natural Deduction: A Proof-Theoretical Study (1965)
5. Prawitz, On the idea of a general proof theory (1974)
6. Michael Dummett, The Logical Basis of Metaphysics (1976)
1, 2, and 5 are articles. 3 is a thesis. 4 and 6 are books.
posted by SollosQ at 9:32 AM on September 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
So, here's what I believe is a pretty accurate list of the essential classics of proof-theory:
1. Prior, The Runabout Inference Ticket (1960)
2. Belnap, Tonk, Plonk, and Plink (1961-62)
3. Gentzen, Investigations into Logical Deduction, 1964 (First translated, originally published in German in the 30's)
4. Prawitz, Natural Deduction: A Proof-Theoretical Study (1965)
5. Prawitz, On the idea of a general proof theory (1974)
6. Michael Dummett, The Logical Basis of Metaphysics (1976)
1, 2, and 5 are articles. 3 is a thesis. 4 and 6 are books.
posted by SollosQ at 9:32 AM on September 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
Your question is pretty much unanswerable as stated in the natural sciences. Most of the seminal, influential works in the sciences (and in mathematics) are journal articles, not books.
posted by Johnny Assay at 9:32 AM on September 6, 2013 [5 favorites]
posted by Johnny Assay at 9:32 AM on September 6, 2013 [5 favorites]
Honestly, I'd just like to know the five most important works in various disciplines that have guided the trajectory of that field of knowledge and opened things up in a new way.
Well, if you're open a bit beyond academia...? In criminal-law practice, I definitely think there are seminal books. Pozner and Dodd's Cross-Examination: Science and Techniques has been hugely influential and basically codified some of the language we now use to analyze cross-examination. Paul Liacos organized Massachusetts' common-law rules of evidence into a handbook that became so pervasive as official-unofficial that finally our supreme court just redrafted it and published an official guide. Fred Inbau and John Reid wrote the book founding the modern field of criminal interview and interrogation. Bryan Garner's The Winning Brief has everybody (who has read it) rethinking footnotes. And it seems silly to cite a style guide as seminal, but truly, legal writing would be far more of an unholy nightmarish mess if not for The Bluebook standardizing us all, even outside academia where we sometimes stray from it.
I'm not a photography professor, but for the practical field I personally would cite Ansel Adams' Photography series, especially volume 2 (The Negative) for describing the Zone System, and Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure as the book most how-to photography authors have either built upon or tried to emulate. Similarly, I'm neither a culinary professor nor a cookbook editor, but Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking has to be in the top five in one of those fields, I'd think. For manuscript editing, definitely the Chicago Manual of Style.
For jazz composition, both academic and practical: not a lot of people still read Walter Piston's Orchestration but most people are still working from it second- or third-hand. Ditto Sammy Nestico's The Complete Arranger, which should be on every jazz writer's bookshelf. Like Understanding Exposure, it's a book most other authors either borrow from or build upon. The next three suffer from limited availability for different reasons. George Russell wouldn't allow his Lydian Chromatic Concept to be published widely, but it has influenced the way every serious writer thinks about harmony for the past few decades. Mick Goodrick's three-volume Almanac of Guitar Voice Leading is out-of-print and doesn't look like it'll be revived, but it spread like wildfire among guitarists and pianists and its concepts have shown up in some unexpected places. And lastly, The Real Book was a copyright violation that got people arrested on streetcorners but it created a common language for performers and composers alike, and nearly every small-group composition from the past thirty-something years owes a debt to that book being hidden in everybody's instrument case.
posted by cribcage at 11:36 AM on September 6, 2013 [2 favorites]
Well, if you're open a bit beyond academia...? In criminal-law practice, I definitely think there are seminal books. Pozner and Dodd's Cross-Examination: Science and Techniques has been hugely influential and basically codified some of the language we now use to analyze cross-examination. Paul Liacos organized Massachusetts' common-law rules of evidence into a handbook that became so pervasive as official-unofficial that finally our supreme court just redrafted it and published an official guide. Fred Inbau and John Reid wrote the book founding the modern field of criminal interview and interrogation. Bryan Garner's The Winning Brief has everybody (who has read it) rethinking footnotes. And it seems silly to cite a style guide as seminal, but truly, legal writing would be far more of an unholy nightmarish mess if not for The Bluebook standardizing us all, even outside academia where we sometimes stray from it.
I'm not a photography professor, but for the practical field I personally would cite Ansel Adams' Photography series, especially volume 2 (The Negative) for describing the Zone System, and Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure as the book most how-to photography authors have either built upon or tried to emulate. Similarly, I'm neither a culinary professor nor a cookbook editor, but Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking has to be in the top five in one of those fields, I'd think. For manuscript editing, definitely the Chicago Manual of Style.
For jazz composition, both academic and practical: not a lot of people still read Walter Piston's Orchestration but most people are still working from it second- or third-hand. Ditto Sammy Nestico's The Complete Arranger, which should be on every jazz writer's bookshelf. Like Understanding Exposure, it's a book most other authors either borrow from or build upon. The next three suffer from limited availability for different reasons. George Russell wouldn't allow his Lydian Chromatic Concept to be published widely, but it has influenced the way every serious writer thinks about harmony for the past few decades. Mick Goodrick's three-volume Almanac of Guitar Voice Leading is out-of-print and doesn't look like it'll be revived, but it spread like wildfire among guitarists and pianists and its concepts have shown up in some unexpected places. And lastly, The Real Book was a copyright violation that got people arrested on streetcorners but it created a common language for performers and composers alike, and nearly every small-group composition from the past thirty-something years owes a debt to that book being hidden in everybody's instrument case.
posted by cribcage at 11:36 AM on September 6, 2013 [2 favorites]
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posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:35 AM on September 6, 2013