Go West, Young Man!
Branko D. Terzic
Consultant in energy regulation: electric, oil pipeline and natural gas industries, expert witness in regulatory issues before state and federal commissions.
As an engineering student I did not get the opportunity to do any really interesting assigned readings in literature or culture at university. So I started reading outside of professional texts as soon as I completed my college studies. My favorites included books on the topics of history, science fiction and mystery. Even there I knew that I was limiting myself. I once picked up a summary of "The 100 Greatest Books" but found that less than satisfying.
Getting quickly to the point of this essay I would like to pass along a recommendation by Professor Nail Ferguson, the Lawrence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. The recommendation comes from his book CIVILIZATION: THE WEST AND THE REST (The Penguin Press, New York 2011);
Ferguson asks "But what are the foundational texts of Western civilization, that can bolster our belief in the almost boundless power of the free individual human being?"(P. 324)
He offers the following in answer to the question:
The King James Bible
Isaac Newton's Principia
John Locke's Two Treatises on Government
Adam Smith's Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations
Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revelation in France
Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species
William Shakespeare's plays
Abraham Lincoln selected speeches
Winston Churchill selected speeches
That's my reading list now.
Senior Technical Writer/Editor/Business Consultant
8 年Thanks for this list. I may take the challenge myself to read from this list.
We read all of this as part of Western Civ class in college at the UofC, during the first year. Here is a classic literature list you may wish to skim over in your free time (many good reads here): https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4311.Best_Classic_Literature_Ever