Collective Wisdom

Summer reading recommendations from 13 seasoned educators with 344 years of combined Messiah experience

What happens when you ask a group of people to provide individual input on a particular subject? You get an assortment of contributions that, when considered in the aggregate, is far more diverse and usually more innovative than any one person could have provided. It’s a phenomenon known as collective wisdom (an idea that has risen in public consciousness since the 2005 release of New Yorker business columnist James Surowiecki’s intriguing book The Wisdom of Crowds).

On the following pages, you will find the collective wisdom of 13 Messiah professors. Each contributor is one of 43 faculty members who has served the College for at least 20 consecutive years. We asked this group of seasoned educators to share their collective wisdom with you, in the form of book recommendations, for this year’s summer reading article. As always, the list of books recommended in this annual feature crosses many genres and is sure to provide you with countless hours of reading pleasure this summer—and beyond!

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