Berkeley Book List
As executive dean of the College of Letters & Science, it is a particular pleasure for me to introduce the newly debuted Berkeley Book List. In this first annual edition of the list, distinguished faculty recommend a feast of books — some topical, some classics, others just favorites — across a range of subject areas. For those of you who are avid readers and who relish staying abreast of a particular field of knowledge, the Berkeley Book List is your ticket to indulge your curiosity.
These days, even as we have ready access to media of so many types, all of us in the College of Letters & Science feel strongly that there is nothing so deeply satisfying as a book. One does not just click onto or scroll through a book, nor does a book use amplification, visual or sonic, to "pump us up." Rather, a book offers itself to us in such a way that, as readers, we remain in charge of our experience of it. And yet, the best books somehow take possession of us even as we take possession of them.
 Ralph Hexter |
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This inaugural edition of the Berkeley Book List features recommendations from a cross-section of professors in UC Berkeley's College of Letters & Science. With roughly 800 professors in some 60 departments or programs, Letters & Science encompasses more than half the University's faculty, three-quarters of its undergraduate students, and almost half of Berkeley's Ph.D. students. The liberal arts have always consisted of a broad variety of fields. What makes the liberal arts a basis for an education is how all of us combine, for our students on campus and, here, for you, our various expertises and interests, sparking connections that no one has ever seen before.
As you'll see, our faculty contributors have by no means restricted themselves to books that are strictly in their disciplines. Their individual specialties are represented, to be sure, but with books that will be accessible to all readers. Many professors also have shared their extra-curricular passions in reading material.
I hope you will be intrigued and inspired to explore many of the books described here, in some cases reading all the recommendations of one faculty member, in other cases making your own anthology by picking books from several different lists. You cannot possibly go wrong. Please pass these recommendations, and even better, the website address of books.berkeley.edu, to your friends across the country and around the world. Nothing would make us happier than if they, too, dropped in to visit, taking away not only our suggestions for great reading but a deeper appreciation of the remarkable intellectual community that is Berkeley.
Ralph J. Hexter
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