Freshman-Sophomore Reading Program
ONE of the main features of the new curriculum is an independent program of general reading in the first two years and of independent reading prescribed by the major department in the last two years. Under the chairmanship of Prof. John L. Stewart of the English Department, director of the reading program, the general reading list was prepared over the summer and mailed home to freshmen and sophomores, so they could get an early start if they wanted to.
Freshmen and sophomores will be examined on the three books required in Group I and will be asked to submit written commentaries on the three books chosen from Group II.
The general reading list of some seventy books is printed here, especially for those alumni who might wish to do some of the reading themselves or use the list as the basis for a family library. About half of the books are available in paperbound editions and are so indicated by the information in parentheses.
GROUP I
To be read by all freshmen and sophomores:
1. In the fall term: Homer's The Iliad, trans, by E. V. Rieu (Penguin Books, L14) or Homer's The Odyssey, trans, by E. V. Rieu (Penguin Books, Li).
2. In the winter term: The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner (Simon and Schuster) or Mirror for Man by Clyde Kluckhohn (Premier Books, D58).
3. In the spring term: Biography of theEarth by George Gamow (New American Library, MD138) or What Is Life? And OtherScientific Essays by Erwin Schrödinger (Anchor Books, A88).
GROUP II
All freshmen and sophomores are expected to read three books from the following list, one each term. Students are not required to distribute their choices among the categories, but this is recommended. No book being currently used as a course textbook may be chosen.
A. Great Literary Works
Sophocles, The Oedipus Cycle of Sophocles, trans, by Fitts and Fitzgerald (Harvest Books, HB8).
Plato, Dialogues, ed. by Kaplan (Pocket Books, Pl.7).
Vergil, The Aeneid, trans, by C. Day Lewis (Anchor Books, A20).
Dante, The Inferno (Part I of the DivineComedy), trans, by Dorothy Sayers (Penguin Books, L6).
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, modern English version by Coghill (Penguin Books, L 22). Or The Portable Chaucer, ed. by Theodore Morrison (Viking Press, P47).
Cervantes, Don Quixote, trans, by Samuel Putnam in The Portable Cervantes (Viking Press, P57).
Milton, Paradise Lost.
Voltaire, Candide, trans, by Butt (Penguin Books, L4).
Goethe, Faust (Part I), trans, by Louis Mac-Neice (Oxford, paperbound).
Dostoievsky, The Brothers Karamazou, trans, by Manuel Komrolf (New American Library, T1488).
B. Science and Its Impact
Lincoln Barnett, The Universe and Doctor
William S. Beck, Modern Science and theNature of Life.
Eric T. Bell, Men of Mathematics.
Rachel L. Carson, The Sea Around Us (New American Library, Mioo).
Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld, The Evolution of Physics.
George Gamow, One, Two, Three . . . Infinity (New American Library, MD97).
Fred Hoyle, The Nature of the Universe (New American Library, MDI25).
Robert Oppenheimer, Science and the Common Understanding.
Rudolf E. Peierls, The Laws of Nature.
Bertrand Russell, The Impact of Science onSociety.
Erwin Schrödinger, Science and Humanism.
A. N. Whitehead, Science and the ModernWorld (New American Library, MD162).
C. Philosophical, Social and Cultural
W. F. Albright, From the Stone Age to Christianity (Anchor Books, A100).
Crane Brinton, The Shaping of the ModernMind (New American Library, MD173).
J. W. Cash, The Mind of the South (Anchor Books, A27).
Stuart Chase, The Proper Study of Mankind (revised edition).
Vera Dean, The Nature of the Non-WesternWorld.
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. I (Vintage Books, K5a).
Irwin Edman, Vountainheads of Freedom.
Charles Frankel, The Case for Modern Man.
Sigmund Freud, General Introduction toPsychoanalysis (Pocket Books, M5001).
Echvard Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of theRoman Empire (Viking Portable, P60).
Richard Hofstadter, The American PoliticalTradition (Vintage Books, Kg).
William James, Pragmatism (Meridian Books, M16).
Thomas Jefferson, Life and Selected Writings, ed. by Koch and Peden.
Machiavelli, The Prince (New American Library, M69).
Jacques Maritain, Man and the State (Phoenix Books, P5).
Reinhold Niebuhr, Faith and History.
F. S. C. Northrop, The Meeting of East andWest.
Josiah Royce, The Spirit of Modern Philosophy.
Carroll Pratt, The Logic of Psychology.
Bertrand Russell, Problems of Philosophy. W. T. Siace, The Destiny of Western Man.
Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station (Anchor Books, A6).
D. Meaning and Direction of Education
James B. Conant, Citadel of Learning.
James B. Conant, Education and Liberty.
Harvard University Study, General Educationin a Free Society.
Robert Hutchins, Conflict in Education.
L. P. Jacks, Education of the Whole Man.
Alexander G. Korol, Soviet Education for Science and Technology.
Jacques Maritain, Education at the Crossroads.
William R. Niblett, Education, the Lost Dimension.
Bruce Truscot, Redbrick University.
A. N. Whitehead, The Aims of Education (New American Library, MD152).
E. Miscellaneous Books
Miguel Covarrubias, Mexico South.
Leonardo da Vinci, The Notebooks (2 vols.).
Irwin Edman, Arts and the Man.
Jean Froissart, Chronicles of England, Franceand Spain.
Sigfried Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture.
Maurice Grosser, The Painter's Eye (New American Library, M159).
Editli Hamilton, Mythology (New American Library, MD86).
The Legacy of Islam, ed. by Thomas Arnold and Alfred Guillaume.
Marco Polo, Travels.
John Martin, The Dance.
Gunnar Myrclal, American Dilemma: the Negro Problem and Democracy.
Seuionius, Twelve Caesars, trans, by Robert Graves (Penguin Books, L72).
Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, trans, by Rex Warner (Penguin Books, L39).
D. F. Tovey, The Forms of Music (Meridian Books, M36).
Xenophon, The Persian Expedition (Anabasis), trans, by Rex Warner (Penguin Books, L7).
