Classic books, in close conversation.

“I sit with Shakespeare, and he winces not.” – WEB DuBois

This list is updated for the start of each semester, so that students will know in advance what books will be required for their Core courses. Exact editions are required.

Copies of the Core texts can be obtained from the Core office, as long as supplies allow, for a set period of time (as books signed-out from the Core library).

Course Semester Title, with Author(s) and Translators ISBN link
CC101 F23 Gilgamesh, trans. Mitchell 9780743261692 B&N
CC101 F23 The Odyssey by Homer, trans. Fitzgerald 9780374525743 B&N
CC101 F23 Odysseus at Troy, trans. Esposito 9781585103966
B&N
CC101 F23 The Republic by Plato, trans. Reeve 9780872207363
B&N
CC101 F23 Genesis, trans. Alter 9780393316704
B&N
CC102 S24 The Daodejing of Laozi, trans. Ivanhoe 9780872207011 B&N
CC102 S24 The Bhagavad-Gita, trans. Stoler-Miller 9780553213652 B&N
CC102 S24 The Gospel of Matthew from the New Testament (RSV) 9780452006478 B&N
CC102 S24 The Gospel of John from the New Testament (RSV) 9780452006478 B&N
CC102 S24 The Analects by Confucius, trans. Watson 9780231141659 B&N
CC102 S24 Inferno by Dante, trans. Mandelbaum 9780553213393 B&N
CC102 S24 Purgatorio by Dante, trans. Mandelbaum 9780553213447 B&N
CC102 S24 Paradiso by Dante, trans. Mandelbaum 9780553900545 B&N
CC102 S24 The Aeneid by Virgil, trans. Fitzgerald 9780679729525 B&N
CC102 S24 selections from the works of Hrosvitha packet packet
CC102 S24 Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle, trans. Ostwald 9780023895302 B&N
CC111 F23 Custom online textbook (on course webpage)
CC201 F23 two letters from Petrarch packet packet
CC201 F23 The Canzionere by Petrarch, trans. Musa 9780199540693 B&N
CC201 F23 The Essays: A Selection by Michel de Montaigne, trans. Screech 9780140446029 B&N
CC201 F23 selected poems, prayers, letters, and speeches of Queen Elizabeth I packet packet
CC201 F23 Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, trans. Rutherford 9780142437230 B&N
CC201 F23 The Sonnets by William Shakespeare 9780451527271 B&N
CC201 F23 Hamlet by William Shakespeare 9780451526922 B&N
CC201 F23 Discourse on Method and Meditations by René Descartes, trans. Lafleur 9780023672606 B&N
CC201 F23 The Convent of Pleasure by Margaret Cavendish packet packet
CC201 F23 Paradise Lost by John Milton 9780451531643 B&N
CC202 S24 Candide by Voltaire, trans. Wootton 9780872205468 B&N
CC202 S24 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass 9780486284996 B&N
CC202 S24 The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, trans. Nelson, Pevear and Volokhonsky 9780486284996 B&N
CC202 S24 Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, trans. Kauffmann 9780385031141 B&N
CC202 S24 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 9780141439518 B&N
CC202 S24 Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman 9780451419170 B&N
CC202 S24 Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals by Immanuel Kant, trans. Grego & Timmermann 9781107401068 B&N
CC202 S24 English Romantic Poetry: An Anthology edited by Appelbaum 9780486292823 B&N
CC202 S24 On the Genealogy of Morality by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. Diethe 9780521691635 B&N
CC202 S24 The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois 9780486280417 B&N
CC202 S24 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 9780143131847 B&N
CC221 F23 The Prince by Machiavelli, trans. Wootton 9780872203167 B&N
CC221 F23 Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes 9780872201774 B&N
CC221 F23 Second Treatise of Government by John Locke 9780915144860 B&N
CC221 F23 Basic Political Writings by Jean-Jacques Rousseau 9781603846738 B&N
CC221 F23 excerpt from “Of the Original Contract” by David Hume packet packet
CC221 F23 selections of declarations of liberty and equality packet packet
CC221 F23 A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft packet packet
CC221 F23 excerpts from Rousseau’s Emile packet packet
CC221 F23 Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville 9780872204942 B&N
CC221 F23 The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith packet packet
CC221 F23 The Marx and Engels Reader, edited by Tucker 9780393090406 B&N
CC221 F23 The Division of Labor in Society by Émile Durkheim 9781476749730 B&N
CC221 F23 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber 9780199747252 B&N
CC212 S24 Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway 9781608193943 B&N
CC222 S24 Purity and Danger by Mary Douglas 9780415289955 B&N
CC222 S24 Civilization and its Discontents by Freud, trans. Strachey 9780393304510 B&N
CC222 S24 Discipline and Punish by Foucault, trans. Sheridan 9780679752554 B&N
CC222 S24 Black Skin, White Masks by Fanon, trans. Philcox 9780802143006 B&N
CC222 S24 In the Ruins of Neoliberalism by Wendy Brown 9780231193856 B&N
CC222 S24 Gender Trouble by Judith Butler 9780231193856 B&N
CC320 F23 The Aeneid by Virgil, trans. Fitzgerald 9780679729525
CC320 S23 Gilgamesh, trans. Mitchell (for Tabatabai section, B1) 9780743261692 B&N
CC320 S23 Genesis (for Prentice section, A1) 9780393316704 B&N