May 15, 2013 • No 311 | Archives | Search QL | Subscribe

 

 

   
CAPITALISM & CULTURE
The Best Novels and Plays about Business: Results of a Survey
by Edward W. Younkins
   

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 up to each respondent. We obtained 69 usable responses from Business and Economics professors and 51 from English and Literature professors.

A list of 50 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 25 novels and plays for each group of professors. Interestingly, fifteen works made both top 25 lists. These are noted in bold type.

Business and Economics Professors

 

English and Literature Professors

 

01. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

457

01. Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller

282

02. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand

297

02. Bartleby: The Scrivener, Herman Melville

259

03. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

216

03. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

231

04. Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller

164

04. The Jungle, Upton Sinclair

143

05. Time Will Run Back, Henry Hazlitt

145

05. Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis

126

06. The Jungle, Upton Sinclair

136

06. Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet

121

07. The Gilded Age, Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner

95

07. The Rise of Silas Lapham, William Dean Howells

98

08. Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet

89

08. American Pastoral, Philip Roth

85

09. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

57

09. 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

ShareShareSharePrintComments

Dr. Edward W. Younkins is a Professor of Accountancy and Business Administration at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia.

   
 

From the same author


Reflections on Victor Hugo's Les Misérables
(no 309 – March 15, 2013)

Business Through Literature and Film
(no 308 – February 15, 2013)

Workplace Freedom and Right to Work Laws
(no 307 – January 15, 2013)

Flourishing and Happiness in a Nutshell
(no 301 – June 15, 2012)

Objectivist Virtue Ethics in Business
(no 300 – May 15, 2012)

More...

   
 
Ama-gi

First written appearance of the word 'liberty,' circa 2300 B.C.

   


Le Québécois Libre Promoting individual liberty, free markets and voluntary cooperation since 1998.

   
 

 Current Issue | Other articles by Edward W. Younkins | Comments? Questions? | Index No 311
QL Archives | Search QL | Subscribe | What is libertarianism? | Who are we? | Reprint Policy | QL on Facebook