Itâs a good choice. It really advanced and explained the notion that mindless processes can produce complex organisms, so no âdesignerâ was needed.
One of the really astounding things about it is that for a 19th century book of science, how much Darwin got right.
I was going to say Strunk & White, but hey, sure, Darwinâs good too.
The top 20 list has a few curious inclusions - are 1984 and Shakespearâs works really academic books? The linked article calls them âmore surprisingâ and I accept that both are influential.
The methodology is ridiculously flawed, yet none of us should be surprised by that.
Itâs rather sad that Descartesâ Meditations on First Philosophy is missing, given itâs importance in initiating the Enlightenment. But itâs even more sad how Eurocentric that list is. Though, again, why should I be surprised? Those who would venture to determine âthe most influential academic book ever writtenâ are likely not very inclusive people; that, or theyâre clickbait algorithms.
I came to ask the same question. Just how do they define âacademic?â Does it mean âhighbrow?â Does it mean âmade out of letters?â Lots of young teens read Shakespeare and Orwell.
Principia Mathematica was my first guess.
Written by academics?
Some works to add - The Wretched of the Earth (or Black Skins, White Masks), The Black Jacobins, The Black Atlantic, The Souls of Black Folks⌠How about something by Spivak?
[ETA] This might be getting a bit too eurocentric again, but no Foucault, Harvey, Adorno, Benjamin, Arendt, Habermas, Heiddigger, Nietzsche, Stuart HallâŚ
Oh come on!
Every science, not just physics, was revolutionized by the methods introduced in Principia Mathematica.
or lotâs of academcial secondary literature - would be fitting for Orwell and Shakespear
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