These Are the Stalwarts of the Syllabus

As the spring term gets underway, professors have finalized syllabi for their courses. What texts are students most often assigned to read? What works of history and political science, for example, have they (and their professors) tended to consult in past years?

One result of a pro-Trump mob’s recent attack on the U.S. Capitol is a debate over what role colleges should play in helping the nation sift fact from fiction. Part of that role is what books students are asked to read.

The Open Syllabus Project, which has collected and analyzed data from more than six million college and university syllabi around the world, has some answers. The database, with its largest number of syllabi coming from the United States, shows how often texts and authors appear in the documents.

Below are some of the core texts academe has turned to, again and again.