Originally published April 3, 2005:
This Tuesday will mark the last time ever that I will sit in a class as a student (maybe that’s why they call the Ph.D. a “terminal degree”). I’ve read an enormous amount over the past two years, so I thought I’d look back and try to rank which books have been most influential on my thinking. Since I couldn’t narrow it to ten, here’s my shot at the top eleven:
11. Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church by Kenda Creasy Dean
10. Simulacra and Simulation by Jean O. Baudrillard
9. Making Social Science Matter: How Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed Again by Bent Flyvbjerg
8. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order by Samuel Huntington