At LaGuardia, the Common Reading Program has established a new platform for critical inquiry. This year we will join faculty and students from across CUNY to engage the study and discussion of “core books” that have shaped how we understand the intersections between society and nature. The works include Plato’s Republic, Marx and Engels’ Communist Manifesto, Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species, and Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon. Reading works like these empowers us to investigate pressing questions of our time. How are social structures built and reformed? How does the natural world evolve around the industries and technologies we develop? Which intellectual traditions enable actions that sustain our shared environment? If you are interested in participating in the Common Reading Program, please email Charity Scribner, cscribner@lagcc.cuny.edu.
The new CUNY Core Books initiative is partially funded through a generous grant from the Teagle Foundation.
The table below includes the number of common reading texts available on reserve and in the stacks at the LaGuardia Library. All books on reserve are organized alphabetically by title at the Library’s circulation desk. Select readings are included in edited volumes, therefore students and faculty must request the title of the volume at the circulation desk, and not the individual reading. Please refer to the table below for relevant volume titles.
|
Books |
Copies on reserve |
Copies in stacks |
|---|---|---|
|
Homer, The Odyssey |
4 |
8 |
|
Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon |
1 |
2 |
|
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah |
1 |
1 |
|
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto |
1 |
8 |
|
Chad Broughton, Boom, Bust, Exodus: The Rust Belt, The Maquilas, and a Tale of Two Cities |
1 |
0 |
|
Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species |
1 |
1 |
|
Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Gene: An Intimate History |
1 |
2 |
|
Plato, The Trial and Death of Socrates |
1 |
5 |
|
Plato, The Republic |
1 |
6 |
|
Sophocles, Oedipus the King Volumes on Reserve: Fagles, et al. The Three Theban Plays. Thomas, J. E., et al. Oedipus Rex. Fitts, et al. The Oedipus Cycle : an English Version. Fitts, et al. The Oedipus Cycle : an English Version. |
4 |
5 |
|
Sophocles, Antigone Volumes on reserve: Gainor, et al. The Norton Anthology of Drama. Wyckoff, et al. Sophocles. I, Antigone ; Oedipus the King ; Oedipus at Colonus. Anouilh, Jean, et al. Antigone.
|
3 |
5 |
|
Dante, Inferno Volumes on reserve: Ciardi, John, et al. The Inferno. Pinsky, Robert., and Pinsky, Nicole. The Inferno of Dante : a New Verse Translation. |
2 |
4 |
|
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince |
1 |
4 |
|
The Declaration of Independence |
1 on reserve 1 in reference |
2 |
|
Constitution of the United States |
1 on reserve 1 in reference |
2 |
|
James Madison, The Federalist Paper No. 10 Volumes on reserve: Hamilton, et al. The Federalist Papers. |
1 |
1 |
|
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman |
1 |
0 |
|
Frederick Douglass, “What to the Negro is the Fourth of July?” Volumes on reserve: Marable, et al. Let Nobody Turn Us around : Voices of Resistance, Reform, and Renewal : an African American Anthology. |
2 |
4 |
|
WEB Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk |
1 |
4 |
Charity Scribner, English (Chair)
Nana Osei Bonsu, Math, Engineering, and Computer Science
Jose Fabara, Education and Language Acquisition
Daniel Gertner, Natural Science
Sada Hye-Jaman, Business & Technology
Ian McDermott, Library
Michele Piso Manoukian, Center for Teaching and Learning
Maureen Doyle, Health Sciences
Rebecca Tally, Social Science
Liena Vayzman, Humanities
