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What Books Do You Consider Required Reading In A Particular Area Of Study?

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Pollux

Pollux

Member
Basically just what the thread title says...what books would you recommend to someone who is interested in a particular area of study? What books do you consider "required reading" for a certain area? Hopefully this thread can take off, if it does I'll keep the OP updated and will organize the books by category and put links to amazon so people who are interested can look into purchasing them. I'll put the categories, and then the books within the categories in alphabetical order so it'll make it easier for people to jump to topics they're interested in.

This could also potentially turn into a discussion thread where people can discuss the ideas that were discussed in the book they just read with others who are familiar with the topic.

This could be a good way for people who have always had a curiosity about a subject, but never really knew where to start, to finally take the jump.

If the book you're recommending fits in a category but could also be in a subcategory, post both when you recommend the book. E.G. There's the category of "Literature" but there are many different subcategories of literature -- Southern American Literature Post-Civil War, British Literature, African-American Literature, etc. Or There's the category of Philosophy and within the field of Philosophy there are different "schools of thought", When you post the book mention which school of though (sub-category) it would belong under.

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ANTHROPOLOGY


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ARCHAEOLOGY
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ART AND DESIGN
Art​

Design​

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ASTRONOMY



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BIOLOGY
Evolutionary Biology​
Cell Biology​




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CHEMISTRY
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CLASSICAL STUDIES
Ancient Greek Literature​

Ancient Greek Philosophy​
  • **Will update section as titles are posted.

Roman History​

Roman Philosophy​


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COMMUNICATIONS
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COMPUTER SCIENCE



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CULTURAL STUDIES
Middle Eastern​



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EARTH SCIENCES



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ECONOMICS



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ENGINEERING
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GEOGRAPHY & ENVIRONMENT
  • **Will update section as titles are posted.



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HISTORY
English History​

Historiography​

Intellectual History​

World History​
 
Pollux

Pollux

Member
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HISTORY OF ART AND ARCHITECTURE
  • **Will update section as titles are posted.



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INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND FOREIGN POLICY
Theory​

History​

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LINGUISTICS
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LAW/LEGAL STUDIES
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LITERATURE
Criticism/Theory​

English Literature​

Russian Literature​


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MATH AND STATISTICS
Calculus​



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MUSIC
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PHILOSOPHY



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PHYSICS



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POLITICAL SCIENCE
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PSYCHOLOGY



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RELIGION

General Analysis​

Christianity​

Taoism​


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SOCIOLOGY
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WOMEN, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY
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WRITING
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K

Kabouter

Member
I'd say Guns, Germs and Steel is pretty much required reading for history, even if I don't fully agree with its explanations all the time. Very interesting book.
 
Z

Zebra

Member
I would imagine that Cosmos by Carl Sagan and A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking deserve spots under Astronomy.
 
A

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
Could you put in an art and design area?

I'd say for now Drawing on the right side of the brain as the go to essential.
 
T

travisbickle

Member
Design theory:


Design as Art - Bruno Munari
Ways of Seeing - John Berger
Universal Principles of Design - can't remember
Anything by Ian Noble (visual design)

Design:

Cradle to Cradle - Michael Braungart
I don't know where I'm going but I want to be there
The Art of Looking Sideways - Alan Fletcher


From the top of my head
 
Z

ZackieChan

Member
History: The Lessons of History by Will Durant

Great little overview of history. Everything else I read was basically either a textbook or a super-niche bit of history. However, reading some of Bart Ehrman's stuff about Jesus/the Bible will give you a good look at how to evaluate "truth" through historical documents. Good reading.
 
Pollux

Pollux

Member
Updated, and there are two new categories:
1. Art and Design
2. Women, Gender, and Sexuality

And I'm going to bed. Will update the OP some more tomorrow.
 
T

Thatoneguy

Neo Member
Literature: Paradise Lost by John Milton.

Literally every professor I've ever had references Paradise Lost when talking about the text we are actually studying.
 
I

I'm an expert

Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
Kabouter said:
I'd say Guns, Germs and Steel is pretty much required reading for history, even if I don't fully agree with its explanations all the time. Very interesting book.
Click to expand...

This is so weird. I found this book left behind in a house I moved into into Japan like a decade ago and over the years slowly read it. I figured it was just a very random/unique outlook and that literally no one ever even heard of this book. Just last year I realized it's quite a respected book and seeing it recommended here just confirms that. A mini-mind blown for me. But, yes, it is a VERY interesting book.
 
R

rdrr gnr

Member
International Relations:
Works by Wallerstein

Literature:
Works by Dostoevsky

Religion:
A History of God by Armstrong

Politics:
The Rights of Man by Paine

Classical Studies (where do you draw the philosophical divide?):
De Oratore by Cicero
De rerum natura by Lucretius

Philosophy:
A Treatise of Human Nature by Hume

Biology:
The Origin of Species by Darwin

Cultural Studies:
Orientalism - Edward Said

Math/Physics:
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Newton

Edit: You are missing fields like Communications, Linguistics, and Cultural Studies.
Edit: I wouldn't necessarily say Foucault has a cornerstone text that revolutionized an entire academic field, but something by Foucault (Madness and Civilization) should be on this list.
 
A

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
So any designers out there who know of any good grid layout books?

I have Making and Braking the Grid which gives a nice gallery and analysis on various gird layouts but it seems very basic.
 
S

Salazar

Member
Literary criticism/theory

Kenneth Burke: A Grammar of Motives + Language as Symbolic Action
Frank Kermode: The Sense of an Ending + Shakespeare's Language
William Empson: Seven Types of Ambiguity+ Some Versions of Pastoral.
Guy Davenport: The Geography of the Imagination
Christopher Ricks: The Force of Poetry

Intellectual History - largely early modern in concern and scope.

Mary Poovey: A History of the Modern Fact
Anne Goldgar: Impolite Learning
Keith Thomas: The Ends of Life
Roy Porter: Flesh in the Age of Reason
Jonathan Rose: The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes

Difficult to fasten the label 'essential' onto works of highly disparate scholarship, but these should markedly and positively influence anybody who reads them closely.

Edit: I agree wholeheartedly with the Lucretius mention.
 
M

Mumei

Member
Something I suppose not many people will bring up:

Philanthropy:

On Benefits, Seneca
Largesse (Parti Pris (Reunion Des Musees Nationaux (France)).), Jan Starobinski
Bread and Circuses: Historical Sociology and Political Pluralism, Paul Veyne
 
Papa

Papa

Banned
Earth Sciences - Craig's Soil Mechanics by R. F. Craig.

Throughout uni this book made probably the toughest of the civil engineering streams passable. Most civil engineers I've met know of the book and also speak highly of it.
 
A

AAequal

Banned
Kabouter said:
I'd say Guns, Germs and Steel is pretty much required reading for history, even if I don't fully agree with its explanations all the time. Very interesting book.
Click to expand...

Have to agree with you there. From the same author comes Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised Edition. I think it's equally interesting book to read. History

The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal. This book deals with both human evolution and anthropology but I would place it in the latter category. anthropology

The Selfish Gene. People might not like Dawkins but before his crusade against religion he wrote great popular science books and The Selfish Gene is probably his best work. Good popular science book that talks lot about Gene-centered view of evolution and it coined the term meme. evolutionary biology

Adaptation and Natural Selection. It's bit more advanced then your typical popular science book but I guess that's not a problem? Evolution

Two great books by Sean B. Carroll. Evolutionary Biology
Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo
The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution
 
R

rdrr gnr

Member
Salazar said:
Literary criticism/theory

Kenneth Burke: A Grammar of Motives + Language as Symbolic Action
Frank Kermode: The Sense of an Ending + Shakespeare's Language
William Empson: Seven Types of Ambiguity+ Some Versions of Pastoral.
Guy Davenport: The Geography of the Imagination
Christopher Ricks: The Force of Poetry

Intellectual History - largely early modern in concern and scope.

Mary Poovey: A History of the Modern Fact
Ann Goldgar: Impolite Learning
Keith Thomas: The Ends of Life
Roy Porter: Flesh in the Age of Reason

Difficult to fasten the label 'essential' onto works of highly disparate scholarship, but these should markedly and positively influence anybody who reads them closely.

Edit: I agree wholeheartedly with the Lucretius mention.
Click to expand...
The fact that you know who Kenneth Burke is makes me all tingly inside. Rhetoric never gets the due it deserves.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Man. Great thread idea, but it already feels like people are casting too wide a net. I can barely think of any books I consider absolute required reading, let alone whole lists of them in a single subject.
 
V

Vaporak

Member
This seems like a cool thread, I hope it takes off! Unfortunately I can't really recommend anything from my own area of study, Mathematics. It's not the kind of field that you actually read the historically important works themselves, and I really have never read a book on mathematics that I considered well written and approachable for anyone really.
 
W

WeeBey

Neo Member
Biology:

On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (subfield: evolutionary biology)
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (subfield: evolutionary biology)
Micrographia by Robert Hooke (subfield: cell biology)


Math:

A Course of Pure Mathematics by G.H. Hardy
Elements by Euclid (sub-field: history/geometry)
A Mathematician's Apology by G.H. Hardy (subfield: philosophy)
Calculus by Michael Spivak (subfield: Calculus)
Calculus, Vol 1 by Tom M. Apostol (subfield: Calculus)
Calculus, Vol. 2 by Tom M. Apostol (subfield: Calculus)
Introduction to Calculus and Analysis, Vol. I by Richard Courant and Fritz John (subfield: Calculus)
Introduction to Calculus and Analysis, Vol. II by Richard Courant and Fritz John (subfield: Calculus)

(FYI: Not only are those 5 calculus books classic but if you master all of them, you will master Calculus)

Math & Physics:

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) by Isaac Newton (subfield: newtonian physics/history/calculus)

Physics:

Relativity by Einstein (subfield: relativity)
Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo (Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems) by Galileo Galilei (subfield: history/astronomy)

Computer Science:

The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth (subfield: algorithms)
 
K

Kevtones

Member
This should be a community thread once it gets enough responses.


Almost think that more than one thread needs to be made in order to split up the topics. With such breadth, this thread could get overwhelming.
 
U

udllpn

Member
I'm going to start recommending two classic Historiography (methodology of History and how it has been written since antiquity) books:

- The idea of History by R. G. Collingwood (1936).
- What is History? by E. H. Carr (1961).

Those are basic reads that anyone starting studying History should take a look at.
 
R

rdrr gnr

Member
udllpn said:
I'm going to start recommending two classic Historiography (methodology of History and how it has been written since antiquity) books:

- The idea of History by R. G. Collingwood (1936).
- What is History? by E. H. Carr (1961).

Those are basic reads that anyone starting studying History should take a look at.
Click to expand...
The Twenty Years' Crisis is probably another good one by Carr. Which reminds me of another!

(Tough to categorize):
History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
 
P

Phantast2k

Member
Congrats on the thread. I hope you're not just trying to generate referrals on Amazon, lol
- The Wealth of Nations (Smith - it is almost entirely outdated, but still worth a look)
Then there's more or less: Keynes(-ism) vs. Friedman (Monetarism) vs. Austrian School (I guess)...if you want to go deeper /derper..

Some light, yet insightful reading on economics (not textbooks):
- This Time is Different (Rogoff - it may be a bit too academic) - crises: rinse, repeat
- Against the Gods (Bernstein) - history of the statistics/risk management...which is closely intertwined with economics and I guess civilization overall.
- Exorbitant Privilege (Eichengreen) - monetary policy, history of the Dollar

More in the realm of "INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND FOREIGN POLICY":
- The Bottom Billion (Collier) - outlines the problems of the poorest countries, in particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa

Political science / Political philosophy:
- The Communist Manifesto (Marx, Engels - know it before yo condemn it)
- Leviathan (Hobbes)
- Two Treatises of Government (Locke)

Maybe there should be an extension of this thread which includes good (freshman) textbooks and seminal papers on a particular topic.
 
E

eiskaltnz

Member
Software Engineering/Computer Science
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays o
nSoftwarengineering by Fred Brooks

It has a large project management focus but is mostly about software engineering. Though the book is old (especially in such a fast moving field) I feel as if it is required reading for anyone who wants to manage a software development team, and recommended for anyone in the field.
 
A

AAequal

Banned
Went through some of my popular science books and these are the ones that really stand out for reason or other and I think they belong in the required category.

Designing the Molecular World by Philip Ball chemistry
The book is not intended as an introduction to chemistry, but as an accessible survey of recent developments throughout many of the major fields allied with chemistry: from research in traditional areas such as crystallography and spectroscopy to entirely new fields of study such as molecular electronics, artificial enzymes, and "smart" polymer gels. Ball's grand tour along the leading edge of scientific discovery will appeal to all curious readers, with or without any scientific training, to chemistry students looking for future careers, and to practicing chemical researchers looking for information on other specialties within their discipline.
Click to expand...


Made to Measure: New Materials for the 21st Century by Philip Ball chemistry / Material science
This book is written in the same engaging manner as Ball's popular book on chemistry, Designing the Molecular World, and it links insights from chemistry, biology, and physics with those from engineering as it outlines the various areas in which new materials will transform our lives in the twenty-first century. The chapters provide vignettes from a broad range of selected areas of materials science and can be read as separate essays. The subjects include photonic materials, materials for information storage, smart materials, biomaterials, biomedical materials, materials for clean energy, porous materials, diamond and hard materials, new polymers, and surfaces and interfaces.
Click to expand...

Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain Psychology
Five chapters in the book's first part, "Some Elementary Neuroscience," sketch the history of the science of nervous systems and provide a general introduction to neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, and neuropsychology. In the second part, "Recent Developments in the Philosophy of Science," chapters place the mind-body problem within the wider context of the philosophy of science. Drawing on recent research in this area, a general account of intertheoretic reduction is explained, arguments for a reductionist strategy are developed, and traditional objections from dualists and other anti reductionists are answered in novel ways. The third part, "A Neurophilosophical Perspective," concludes the book with a presentation and discussion of some of the most promising theoretical developments currently under exploration in functional neurobiology and in the connectionist models within artificial intelligence research.
Click to expand...

Soft Machines: Nanotechnology and Life by Richard A. L. Jones Quantum physics / Nanotechnology
Soft Machines explains in a lively and very accessible manner why the nanoworld is so different to the macro-world which we are all familiar with. Why does nature engineer things in the way it does, and how can we learn to use these unfamiliar principles to create valuable new materials and artefacts which will have a profound effect on medicine, electronics, energy and the environment in the twenty-first century. With a firmer understanding of the likely relationship between nanotechnology and nature itself, we can gain a much clearer notion of what dangers this powerful technology may potentially pose, as well as come to realize that nanotechnology will have more in common with biology than with conventional engineering.
Click to expand...

Symmetry by Hermann Weyl philosphy of science
Dr. Weyl presents a masterful and fascinating survey of the applications of the principle of symmetry in sculpture, painting, architecture, ornament, and design; its manifestations in organic and inorganic nature; and its philosophical and mathematical significance.
Click to expand...

The Theory Of Groups And Quantum Mechanics by Hermann Weyl Physics
This landmark among mathematics texts applies group theory to quantum mechanics, first covering unitary geometry, quantum theory, groups and their representations, then applications themselves — rotation, Lorentz, permutation groups, symmetric permutation groups, and the algebra of symmetric transformations.
Click to expand...

Space, Time, Matter by Hermann Weyl Physics
A classic of physics ... the first systematic presentation of Einstein's theory of relativity." — British Journal for Philosophy and Science. Long one of the standard texts in the field, this excellent introduction probes deeply into Euclidean space, Riemann's space, Einstein's general relativity, gravitational waves and energy, and laws of conservation.
Click to expand...

The Concept of a Riemann Surface by by Hermann Weyl Maths
This classic on the general history of functions was written by one of the 20th century's best-known mathematicians. Weyl combined function theory and geometry in this high-level landmark work, forming a new branch of mathematics and the basis of the modern approach to analysis, geometry, and topology.
Click to expand...
 
W

WeeBey

Neo Member
History:

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer (subfield: Nazi Germany)

Biology:

The Double Helix by James Watson (subfield: history)
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee (subfield: history/cancer)

Literature:

Maus by Art Spiegelman (subfield: autobiography)
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (subfield: autobiography)
 
E

EnderWiggles

Member
It's a pretty specific category, but:

Chemical Engineering
Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering by Fogler
- Fundamentals and some advanced topics for chemical reactor design (reactor sizing, energy balances, kinetic modeling, etc.)
Transport Phenomena by Bird, Stewart, and Lightfoot
- Momentum, heat, and mass transfer (essentially the underlying physics that forms the foundation for all other chemical engineering "unit operations"). Probably the closest thing to a "bible" in engineering (the book is usually referred to as "BSL" for the authors' last names)

This book may not belong on your list as "required reading" but it's one of those indespensible books a chemical engineer would constantly refer to, especially for the chemical property tables and such:
Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook (also known as "Perry's")
 
W

WARCOCK

Banned
For Math Analysis:

Principles of Mathematical Analysis, Third Edition [Hardcover]
Walter Rudin

Neuroscience:
Principles of neuroscience, Kandel
 
D

DrFurbs

Member
For psychology UGs and MSc students this is a must read. Andy Fields writes in a very in formal manner and explains topics in serious depth using analogies etc. He is the 2007 winner of British Psychological Societies book awards.

Discovering-Statistics-Introducing-Statistical-Methods

Reviews:

"The mathematics behind the tests is always given in considerable detail. This is admirable and helps students to see the logics behind the tests...I like the exploration of the various options for the tests he discusses, and the discussions of the pros and cons of specific variants of tests' - Nurse Researcher (David C. Howell )
Click to expand...

"It is definitely the best written stats book I've seen. I found myself reading through it like a novel, just because I found it interesting. In addition, I like that it is well-integrated with the SPSS information, and I think the students will really appreciate it, too."
(Kimberly Dasch )
Click to expand...
 
jchap

jchap

Member
A Treatise on Electricity & Magnetism by James Maxwell should be up there as one of the most influential
 
C

ClassyPenguin

Banned
linguistics:
The World's Major Languages

History:
History and Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Biology:
On the Origin Of Species

The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins

Literature:
Utopia by Thomas Moore

Oration on the Dignity of Man

Areopagitica

The New Atlantis


The Prince

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Crime and Punishment

The Old Man and the Sea

The Waves by Virginia Woolf

The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy

The Riverside Shakespeare

Canterbury Tales by Chaucer

Economics:
Lords of Finance
 
J

Jackson50

Member
MuseManMike said:
The Twenty Years' Crisis is probably another good one by Carr. Which reminds me of another!

(Tough to categorize):
History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
Click to expand...
The history subcategory under IR seems apt. Aside from being an enthralling text, its influence on the development of realist theory is monumental.

Also, regarding political science, Downs's An Economic Theory of Democracy is paramount. It easily had the greatest effect on the discipline's conceptualization of voter behavior.
 
T

tborsje

Member
International Relations (theory):
Samuel P. Huntington: The Clash of Civilizations
Francis Fukuyama: The End of History and the Last Man

Both books present quite different and conflicting theories regarding the future of international relations, and are probably the most modern manifestations of the 'idealist vs realist' debate in the study.
 
Z

zoku88

Member
For Computer Science: Patterson and Hennesey is pretty important.

If you want to lump Quantum Computation under CS (which it could be, or math): Quantum Computation and Quantum Information by Nielsen and Chuang seems to be widely used.

For whatever section you posted Annals in, A History of Rome by Livy would be nice, too.
 
C

close to the edge

Member
Computer science:
Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (Russell, Norvig): The only AI book I own but it's very accessible while also being quite in-depth. It also covers pretty much every area of AI imaginable. Not just a great AI book but also a great book for CS in general.
The C Programming Language (Kerningham, Ritchie): Book on C by the makers of the language. Of course, if you don't like C, you won't enjoy this book, but as far as books on C go, this is a great one.
 
S

swordfishtrombones

Member
There was a similar question on Ask Metafilter once, it has a lot of good recommendations.

For general, classical physics: seconding Feynman;
Fluid Dynamics: G.K. Batchelor's "An Introduction to Fluid Mechanics";
Turbulence: J.O. Hinze's "Turbulence", Tennekes & Lumley "A first course in Turbulence"
Microfluidics: Bruus "Theoretical Microfluidics"
 
B

beelzebozo

Jealous Bastard
for SOCIOLOGY, i have to recommend NO CONTEST by alfie kohn.

NoContestT.jpg


Social change that will benefit all workers take place only if collective action supercedes the quest for individual rewards. 'The achievement of short-run material satisfaction often makes it irrational from an individual perspective to engage in more radical struggle, since that struggle is by definition against those institutions which provide one's current gain.' This is precisely why 'divide & conquer,' along with the practice of co-opting activitists, is such an effective strategy for maintaining the status quo--and why the individualist worldview is a profoundly conservative doctrine: it inherently stifles change.
Click to expand...

Scarcity is spurious. It now exists only for the purpose of maintaining the system that depends upon it, and its artificiality becomes more palpable each day. Inequality, originally a consequence of scarcity, is now a means of creating artificial scarcities. For in the old culture, the dominant disposition of American life, as we have seen, the manufacture of scarcity is the principal activity. Hostile comments of old-culture adherents toward new-culture forms ('people won't want to work if they get things for nothing,' 'people won't want to get married if they can get it free') often reveal this preoccupation.

Scarcity, the presumably undesired but unavoidable foundation for the whole old-culture edifice, has now become its most treasured and sacred value, and to maintain this value in the midst of plenty it has been necessary to establish invidiousness as the foremost criterion of worth. Old-culture Americans find it difficult to enjoy anything they themselves have unless they can be sure that there are people to whom this pleasure is denied."
Click to expand...
 
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