The 100 best essay collections from the United States

The most influential book of literary criticism in English in the twentieth century. 'Tradition and the Individual Talent' is the single most-taught critical essay.

The foundational text of American constitutional theory, cited by the Supreme Court.

Self-Reliance is required reading in virtually every American high school and university American literature course; 'Self-Reliance' alone is one of the most-taught essays in the American educational canon. The collection appears on 'great American nonfiction' lists consistently and defines the Transcendentalist movement in survey curricula. No formal database signals were returned, but broad educational and cultural consensus places it among the highest-canonical American texts.

Standard reading across philosophy and history of science, sociology and science and technology studies, and one of the most assigned academic books of the twentieth century. The phrase 'paradigm shift' entered everyday language from it.

Gender Trouble is taught on virtually every gender studies, feminist theory, and queer theory syllabus globally, appearing widely in sociology, philosophy, cultural studies, and political science courses. Butler's text has been described by scholars as one of the most influential academic books of the 20th century and is as close to canonical as any work in the humanities published after 1980. Its position on university reading lists across North America, Europe, and beyond is unambiguous — a status granted to very few academic monographs.

Postmodernism is required reading in virtually every cultural studies and literary theory graduate program in the English-speaking world. The 1984 New Left Review essay version from which the book grew is one of the most-assigned academic articles in humanities graduate education. The book has remained in continuous use since its 1991 publication and has been translated into dozens of languages.

"Self-Reliance" is among the most frequently anthologized essays in American literature, a fixture of high school and university American literature and philosophy syllabi. Emerson's essays sit alongside Thoreau's Walden and Whitman's Leaves of Grass as the founding texts of the American canon.

Renaissance Self-Fashioning is the founding text of New Historicism, the dominant mode of literary scholarship from the 1980s through 2000s, and appears on virtually every graduate syllabus in Renaissance literature, literary theory, and cultural studies. Though external data signals show zero entries — likely a cataloguing gap — the book's actual syllabus presence at research universities is pervasive, comparable to major canonical works in its field.

The Fire Next Time appears on hundreds of university syllabi across African American literature, American literature, and cultural studies courses. It is included on the Modern Library's 100 Best Nonfiction list and Time magazine's 100 Best Non-Fiction Books, and has been in near-continuous use as required reading since its 1963 publication.

The foundational text defining and naming literary journalism as a movement.