“Common Readings” at Colleges Uncommonly Political, Scholars Find

National Association of Scholars

New York, NY (August 19, 2013)—The National Association of Scholars (NAS) released its third annual study of common reading programs at American colleges and universities.

This year’s report, Beach Books 2012-2013: What Do Colleges and Universities Want Students to Read Outside Class?, covers 309 colleges and universities and 190 reading assignments.

 Its major findings:

  1. Ninety-seven percent of colleges and universities chose books published in 1990 or later.
  2. Politically-themed books abounded.
  3. The most popular book by far was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, for the second year in a row.
  4. Very few of the colleges with common reading programs chose classics.

NAS president Peter Wood said, “Many colleges begin to prep freshmen for political correctness months before they arrive on campus. So-called ‘common reading’ programs have become a tool for orienting students to progressive causes. The dominant themes in these books are race, gender, class, the evils of capitalism, and the ubiquity of oppression.”

Dr. Wood continued, “Summer reading programs are good in principle, but colleges have misused them. The popularity of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, for example, is based on its depiction of the American medical establishment as racist. That, in turn, helps sell the students on the need for heavy-handed government control of medical care.”

The Beach Books report includes twelve suggestions for selecting better books. It also includes the NAS’s updated list of 50 recommended books for common reading programs.

The NAS works to foster intellectual freedom and to sustain the tradition of reasoned scholarship and civil debate in America’s colleges and universities. To learn more about NAS, visit www.nas.org.

Download the PDF: www.nas.org/images/documents/BeachBooks-2013.pdf

 

CONTACT:

Ashley Thorne, Director, NAS Center for the Study of the Curriculum

917-551-6770; [email protected]

  • Share

Most Commented

March 24, 2025

1.

A Reckoning for Higher Education?

Are American colleges and universities finally getting their comeuppance?...

March 31, 2025

2.

Keeping Watch

Columbia's descent into chaos is by its own hand. Actions to right the university must be swift and tough....

January 27, 2025

3.

Exclusive Documents: UC-Boulder Breaks Civil Rights Law to Advance Racial Preferences

New FOIA documents grant a window into how the University of Colorado-Boulder, in the name of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, discriminates on the basis of protected class and upholds a co......

Most Read

May 15, 2015

1.

Where Did We Get the Idea That Only White People Can Be Racist?

A look at the double standard that has arisen regarding racism, illustrated recently by the reaction to a black professor's biased comments on Twitter....

April 15, 2025

2.

Fighting Harvard and the Other Cultural Warlords

The academic bureaucracies and professoriate are so deeply committed to their radical program of replacing American society with their own vision of a new order that we have no real choice b......

October 12, 2010

3.

Ask a Scholar: What is the True Definition of Latino?

What does it mean to be Latino? Are only Latin American people Latino, or does the term apply to anyone whose language derived from Latin?...