The Best Novels and Plays about Business: Results of a Survey – Article by Edward W. Younkins
Edward W. Younkins
May 10, 2013
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My Koch Research Fellows, Jomana Krupinski and Kaitlyn Pytlak, and I conducted a survey of 250 Business and Economics professors and 250 English and Literature professors. Colleges and universities were randomly selected and then professors from the relevant departments were also randomly selected to receive our email survey. They were asked to list and rank from 1 to 10 what they considered to be the best novels and plays about business. We did not attempt to define the word “best”, leaving that decision to each respondent. We obtained sixty-nine usable responses from Business and Economics professors and fifty-one from English and Literature professors. A list of fifty choices was given to each respondent and an opportunity was presented to vote for works not on the list. When tabulating the results, ten points were given to a novel or play in a respondent’s first position, nine points were assigned to a work in the second position, and so on, down to the tenth listed work, which was allotted one point. The table below presents the top twenty-five novels and plays for each group of professors. Interestingly, fifteen works made both top-25 lists. These are noted in bold type.
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The Best Novels and Plays about Business
Business and Economics Professors |
Points |
English and Literature Professors |
Points |
1. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand |
457 |
1. Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller |
282 |
2. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand |
297 |
2. Bartleby: The Scrivener, Herman Melville |
259 |
3. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald |
216 |
3. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald |
231 |
4. Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller |
164 |
4. The Jungle, Upton Sinclair |
143 |
5. Time Will Run Back, Henry Hazlitt |
145 |
5. Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis |
126 |
6. The Jungle, Upton Sinclair |
136 |
6. Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet |
121 |
7. The Gilded Age, Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner |
95 |
7. The Rise of Silas Lapham, William Dean Howells |
98 |
8. Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet |
89 |
8. American Pastoral, Philip Roth |
85 |
9. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. |
57 |
9. The Confidence Man, Herman Melville |
75 |
10. Other People’s Money, Jerry Sterner |
57 |
10. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand |
75 |
11. Bartleby: The Scrivener, Herman Melville |
55 |
11. A Hazard of New Fortunes, William Dean Howells |
66 |
12. A Man in Full, Tom Wolfe |
48 |
12. The Octopus, Frank Norris |
65 |
13. Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis |
47 |
13. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand |
62 |
14. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Sloan Wilson |
43 |
14. Nice Work, David Lodge |
62 |
15. Rabbit is Rich, John Updike |
41 |
15. The Big Money, John Dos Passos |
59 |
16. Major Barbara, George Bernard Shaw |
39 |
16. The Gilded Age, Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Marner |
58 |
17. Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens |
33 |
17. Rabbit is Rich, John Updike |
55 |
18. The Goal, Eliyahu M. Goldratt |
33 |
18. Seize the Day, Saul Bellow |
55 |
19. The Driver, Garet Garrett |
32 |
19. Mildred Pierce, James M. Gain |
54 |
20. Executive Suite, Cameron Hawley |
32 |
20. The Financier, Theodore Dreiser |
53 |
21. The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope |
32 |
21. Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens |
51 |
22. American Pastoral, Philip Roth |
29 |
22. Sometimes a Great Notion, Ken Kesey |
45 |
23. The Octopus, Frank Norris |
29 |
23. The Last Tycoon, F. Scott Fitzgerald |
44 |
24. Sometimes a Great Notion, Ken Kesey |
28 |
24. The Moviegoer, Walker Percy |
43 |
25. North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell |
27 |
25. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. |
39 |
Dr. Edward W. Younkins is Professor of Accountancy at Wheeling Jesuit University. He is the author of Capitalism and Commerce: Conceptual Foundations of Free Enterprise [Lexington Books, 2002], Philosophers of Capitalism: Menger, Mises, Rand, and Beyond [Lexington Books, 2005] (See Mr. Stolyarov’s review of this book.), and Flourishing and Happiness in a Free Society: Toward a Synthesis of Aristotelianism, Austrian Economics, and Ayn Rand’s Objectivism [Rowman & Littlefield Pub Incorporated, 2011] (See Mr. Stolyarov’s review of this book.). Many of Dr. Younkins’s essays can be found online at his web page at www.quebecoislibre.org. You can contact Dr. Younkins at younkins@wju.edu