ISI's Fifty Best Books of the [20th] Century

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The turn of the century is a time to take stock of the path we have followed, the better to discern where we ought to be going. Historical discernment requires coming to judgment about what has been noble, good, and beneficial in our time—but also about what has been base, bad, and harmful. In the life of the mind, what has our century produced that deserves admiration? What has it produced that deserves only contempt?

Prominent on the "Best" list are many volumes of extraordinary reflection and creativity in a traditional form, which heartens us with the knowledge that fine writing and clear-mindedness are perennially possible.

  1. 1.
    The Education of Henry Adams
    by Henry Adams

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  2. 2.
    The Abolition of Man
    by C. S. Lewis

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  3. 3.
    ?
    Witness
    by Whittaker Chambers

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  4. 4.
    ?
    T. S. Eliot - Selected Essays 1917-1932
    by T. S. Eliot

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  5. 5.
    ?
    Study of History
    by Arnold Toynbee

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  6. 6.

  7. 7.
    Teacher in America
    by Jacques Barzun

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  8. 8.
    Samuel Johnson
    by Walter Jackson Bate

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  9. 9.
    ?
    Understanding Poetry
    by C. Brooks

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  10. 10.
    Whig Interpretation of History
    by Herbert Butterfield

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  11. 11.
    ?
    Orthodoxy
    by G. K. Chesterton

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  12. 12.
    The Second World War (Six Volume Boxed Set)
    by Winston S. Churchill

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  13. 14.
    ?
    Religion and the Rise of the Western Culture
    by Christopher Dawson

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  14. 16.
    The Civil War: A Narrative (3 Volume Set)
    by Shelby Foote

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  15. 17.
    ?
    R. E. Lee: a Biography
    by Douglas Southall Freeman

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  16. 18.
    Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition
    by Milton Friedman

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  17. 19.
    Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made
    by Eugene D. Genovese

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  18. 20.
    Constitution of Liberty (Routledge Classics)
    by Hayek. F. A.

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  19. 22.
    The Death and Life of Great American Cities
    by Jane Jacobs

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  20. 24.
    ?
    The Face of Battle
    by John Keegan

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  21. 25.
    The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot
    by Russell Kirk

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  22. 27.
    After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory
    by Alasdair C. MacIntyre

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  23. 28.
    Jefferson And His Time, 6 vol. set
    by Dumas Malone

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  24. 29.
    ?
    H. L. Mencken: Prejudices
    by James T Farrell

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  25. 30.
    The Seven Storey Mountain
    by Thomas Merton

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  26. 33.
    The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor
    by Flannery O'Connor

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  27. 34.
    Homage to Catalonia (Harvest Book)
    by George Orwell

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  28. 35.
    Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book
    by Walker Percy

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  29. 36.
    The Making of the Atomic Bomb
    by Richard Rhodes

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  30. 39.
    Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy
    by Joseph A. Schumpeter

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  31. 40.

  32. 41.
    The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition
    by William Strunk Jr.

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  33. 43.
    The Frontier In American History
    by Frederick Jackson Turner

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  34. 44.
    ?
    The New Science of Politics: An Introduction
    by Eric Voegelin

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  35. 45.
    Up from Slavery: an autobiography
    by Booker T. Washington

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  36. 48.

  37. 49.
    The Right Stuff
    by Tom Wolfe

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  38. 50.
    The Autobiography of Malcolm X
    by Malcolm X

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Created by Jeff Cavanaugh on Jan 31, 2007.
 

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