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Misleading title. This is an opinion of influential books "written by an academic". It is implicit as this an academics website, but in HN it is out of this con
by soneca 8y ago
Misleading title. This is an opinion of influential books "written by an academic". It is implicit as this an academics website, but in HN it is out of this context.
And to quote the article itself "Ideally, then, the candidates would be like On the Origin of Species or Das Kapital or The Interpretation of Dreams. But those books were written more than 100 years ago, and none by an academic.". So there is a case to be made that academics written books are not that influential.
- improbable22 8y agoAlso, nobody answered the question -- they answered instead "what book by an academic (near my field) deserves more influence". Which if this is a gift shopping list is a more useful question. But largely separate from what books have been influential already.
- CPLX 8y agoThe title has a question mark at the end. The article then contains the various answers of a variety of people they posed that question to. The publication is called the chronicle of higher education and the people they asked for their thoughts on the answer all work in higher education. That seems like exactly the kind of thing I’d expect to see when clicking on that headline.
- Emma_Goldman 8y agoIntellectual life only became professionalised in the 20th century. So no, that's not the implication. Marx was funded by Engels, whose father owned a factory in Manchester. Darwin was funded by his parents. Thankfully, scholars no longer need to depend upon the wealth of their parents and connections.