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 | F24 | Gilgamesh, trans. Ferry | 9781466885028 | B&N |
| CC101 | F24 | The Odyssey by Homer, trans. Fitzgerald | 9780374525743 | B&N |
| CC101 | F24 | Odysseus at Troy, trans. Esposito | 9781585103966 |
B&N |
| CC101 | F24 | The Republic by Plato, trans. Reeve | 9780872207363 |
B&N |
| CC101 | F24 | Genesis, trans. Alter | 9780393316704 |
B&N |
| CC102 | S25 | The Daodejing of Laozi, trans. Ivanhoe | 9780872207011 | B&N |
| CC102 | S25 | The Bhagavad-Gita, trans. Stoler-Miller | 9780553213652 | B&N |
| CC102 | S25 | The Gospel of Matthew from the New Testament (RSV) | 9780452006478 | B&N |
| CC102 | S25 | The Gospel of John from the New Testament (RSV) | 9780452006478 | B&N |
| CC102 | S25 | The Analects by Confucius, trans. Watson | 9780231141659 | B&N |
| CC102 | S25 | Inferno by Dante, trans. Mandelbaum | 9780553213393 | B&N |
| CC102 | S25 | Purgatorio by Dante, trans. Mandelbaum | 9780553213447 | B&N |
| CC102 | S25 | Paradiso by Dante, trans. Mandelbaum | 9780553900545 | B&N |
| CC102 | S25 | The Aeneid by Virgil, trans. Fitzgerald | 9780679729525 | B&N |
| CC102 | S25 | selections from the works of Hrosvitha | packet | packet |
| CC102 | S25 | Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle, TBA | B&N | |
| CC111 | F24 | Custom online textbook (on course webpage) | ||
| CC201 | F24 | The Prince by Machiavelli, trans. Wootton | 9780872203167 | B&N |
| CC201 | F24 | The Canzionere by Petrarch, trans. Musa | 9780199540693 | B&N |
| CC201 | F24 | The Essays: A Selection by Michel de Montaigne, trans. Screech | 9780140446029 | B&N |
| CC201 | F24 | selected poems, prayers, letters, and speeches of Queen Elizabeth I | packet | packet |
| CC201 | F24 | Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, trans. Rutherford | 9780142437230 | B&N |
| CC201 | F24 | The Sonnets by William Shakespeare | 9780451527271 | B&N |
| CC201 | F24 | Hamlet by William Shakespeare | 9780451526922 | B&N |
| CC201 | F24 | Discourse on Method and Meditations by René Descartes, trans. Lafleur | 9780023672606 | B&N |
| CC201 | F24 | The Convent of Pleasure by Margaret Cavendish | packet | packet |
| CC201 | F24 | Paradise Lost by John Milton | 9780451531643 | B&N |
| CC202 | S25 | Candide by Voltaire, trans. Wootton | 9780872205468 | B&N |
| CC202 | S25 | Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass | 9780486284996 | B&N |
| CC202 | S25 | The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, trans. Nelson, Pevear and Volokhonsky | 9780486284996 | B&N |
| CC202 | S25 | Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, trans. Kauffmann | 9780385031141 | B&N |
| CC202 | S25 | Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen | 9780141439518 | B&N |
| CC202 | S25 | Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman | 9780451419170 | B&N |
| CC202 | S25 | Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals by Immanuel Kant, trans. Grego & Timmermann | 9781107401068 | B&N |
| CC202 | S25 | English Romantic Poetry: An Anthology edited by Appelbaum | 9780486292823 | B&N |
| CC202 | S25 | On the Genealogy of Morality by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. Diethe | 9780521691635 | B&N |
| CC202 | S25 | The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois | 9780486280417 | B&N |
| CC202 | S25 | Frankenstein by Mary Shelley | 9780143131847 | B&N |
| CC221 | F24 | The Prince by Machiavelli, trans. Wootton | 9780872203167 | B&N |
| CC221 | F24 | Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes | 9780872201774 | B&N |
| CC221 | F24 | Second Treatise of Government by John Locke | 9780915144860 | B&N |
| CC221 | F24 | Basic Political Writings by Jean-Jacques Rousseau | 9781603846738 | B&N |
| CC221 | F24 | excerpt from “Of the Original Contract” by David Hume | packet | packet |
| CC221 | F24 | selections of declarations of liberty and equality | packet | packet |
| CC221 | F24 | A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft | packet | packet |
| CC221 | F24 | excerpts from Rousseau’s Emile | packet | packet |
| CC221 | F24 | Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville | 9780872204942 | B&N |
| CC221 | F24 | The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith | packet | packet |
| CC221 | F24 | The Marx and Engels Reader, edited by Tucker | 9780393090406 | B&N |
| CC221 | F24 | The Division of Labor in Society by Émile Durkheim | 9781476749730 | B&N |
| CC221 | F24 | The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber | 9780199747252 | B&N |
| CC212 | S25 | Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway | 9781608193943 | B&N |
| CC222 | S25 | Purity and Danger by Mary Douglas | 9780415289955 | B&N |
| CC222 | S25 | Civilization and its Discontents by Freud, trans. Strachey | 9780393304510 | B&N |
| CC222 | S25 | Discipline and Punish by Foucault, trans. Sheridan | 9780679752554 | B&N |
| CC222 | S25 | Black Skin, White Masks by Fanon, trans. Philcox | 9780802143006 | B&N |
| CC222 | S25 | In the Ruins of Neoliberalism by Wendy Brown | 9780231193856 | B&N |
| CC222 | S25 | Gender Trouble by Judith Butler | 9780231193856 | B&N |
| CC320 | F24 | The Aeneid by Virgil, trans. Fitzgerald (Klein) | 9780679729525 | |
| CC320 | F24 | The Analects by Confucius, trans. Watson (Klancer) | 9780743261692 | B&N |
| CC320 | S24 | Genesis (for Prentice section, A1) | 9780393316704 | B&N |