Many wonderful writings exist that contribute positively to the advancement of a liberal education. Reading such works should be a goal for all of us, and doing so is a lifetime endeavor that we must encourage one another to adopt.
Some of these works, however, make such dramatic contributions to our lives that they should be required reading before leaving school. I would like to suggest eight masterpieces that every American should read before reaching the age of twenty.This list is extremely US-centric and consists completely of male authors. What would you add to make it more well-rounded and representative?
As it states that it is aimed at Americans, I guess we can’t expect it to be too international, but how about
- Vine Deloria Jr: Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto
- Beth Brant (ed.): A Gathering of Spirit: A Collection of Writing and Art by North American Indian Women
- Gayatri C. Spivak: ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’
- Mary Brave Bird: Ohitika Woman
- Sapfo: The Poems of Sapfo
- Hildegard of Bingen: Book of Divine Works
- Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- Rosa Luxemburg: The Accumulation of Capital
- Simone de Beauvoir: The Second Sex
- Anne Frank: Anne Frank’s Diary
- Benazir Bhutto: Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West
- Angela Davis: Violence Against Women and the Ongoing Challenge to Racism.
- Paula Gunn Allen: Studies in American Indian Literature: Critical Essays and Course Designs
- Elizabeth Cook-Lynn: Politics of Hallowed Ground : Wounded Knee and the Struggle for Indian Sovereignty
- Luana K. Ross: Inventing the Savage: The Social Construction of American Criminality
- Winona LaDuke: All our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life
- Maya Angelou: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
- Aphra Behn: Oroonoko
Mostly black or indigenous women, some Europeans and one man.
