Required Reading

By Andrew Delbanco,

Book cover of Required Reading: Why Our American Classics Matter Now

Book description

Essays discuss nineteenth and twentieth century American literature, from Henry Adams to Zora Neale Hurston

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Required Reading as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This book showed me how engaging, intellectual history can be written. It’s never enough to present information. If you respect your readers, as Delbanco does, keep them entertained. These twelve essays mix the personal, literary, and social in a lively and often surprising, frothy brew. I also like the way Delbanco makes the distant past relevant for today’s world.

Individual sentences are a delight. You’ll leave the book knowing much more about the life, times, and work of writers like Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edith Wharton, and Richard Wright.

From Marc's list on American intellectual history.

Want books like Required Reading?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 66 books like Required Reading.

Browse books like Required Reading

Book cover of Moby-Dick
Book cover of Love and Death in the American Novel
Book cover of The Social History of Art, Volume 1: From Prehistoric Times to the Middle Ages

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,531

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in the sociology of literature, African Americans, and African American authors?

African Americans 813 books