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The 10 Best Essay Collections of the Decade

Ever tried. ever failed. no matter..

Friends, it’s true: the end of the decade approaches. It’s been a difficult, anxiety-provoking, morally compromised decade, but at least it’s been populated by some damn fine literature. We’ll take our silver linings where we can.

So, as is our hallowed duty as a literary and culture website—though with full awareness of the potentially fruitless and endlessly contestable nature of the task—in the coming weeks, we’ll be taking a look at the best and most important (these being not always the same) books of the decade that was. We will do this, of course, by means of a variety of lists. We began with the best debut novels , the best short story collections , the best poetry collections , and the best memoirs of the decade , and we have now reached the fifth list in our series: the best essay collections published in English between 2010 and 2019.

The following books were chosen after much debate (and several rounds of voting) by the Literary Hub staff. Tears were spilled, feelings were hurt, books were re-read. And as you’ll shortly see, we had a hard time choosing just ten—so we’ve also included a list of dissenting opinions, and an even longer list of also-rans. As ever, free to add any of your own favorites that we’ve missed in the comments below.

The Top Ten

Oliver sacks, the mind’s eye (2010).

Toward the end of his life, maybe suspecting or sensing that it was coming to a close, Dr. Oliver Sacks tended to focus his efforts on sweeping intellectual projects like On the Move (a memoir), The River of Consciousness (a hybrid intellectual history), and Hallucinations (a book-length meditation on, what else, hallucinations). But in 2010, he gave us one more classic in the style that first made him famous, a form he revolutionized and brought into the contemporary literary canon: the medical case study as essay. In The Mind’s Eye , Sacks focuses on vision, expanding the notion to embrace not only how we see the world, but also how we map that world onto our brains when our eyes are closed and we’re communing with the deeper recesses of consciousness. Relaying histories of patients and public figures, as well as his own history of ocular cancer (the condition that would eventually spread and contribute to his death), Sacks uses vision as a lens through which to see all of what makes us human, what binds us together, and what keeps us painfully apart. The essays that make up this collection are quintessential Sacks: sensitive, searching, with an expertise that conveys scientific information and experimentation in terms we can not only comprehend, but which also expand how we see life carrying on around us. The case studies of “Stereo Sue,” of the concert pianist Lillian Kalir, and of Howard, the mystery novelist who can no longer read, are highlights of the collection, but each essay is a kind of gem, mined and polished by one of the great storytellers of our era.  –Dwyer Murphy, CrimeReads Managing Editor

John Jeremiah Sullivan, Pulphead (2011)

The American essay was having a moment at the beginning of the decade, and Pulphead was smack in the middle. Without any hard data, I can tell you that this collection of John Jeremiah Sullivan’s magazine features—published primarily in GQ , but also in The Paris Review , and Harper’s —was the only full book of essays most of my literary friends had read since Slouching Towards Bethlehem , and probably one of the only full books of essays they had even heard of.

Well, we all picked a good one. Every essay in Pulphead is brilliant and entertaining, and illuminates some small corner of the American experience—even if it’s just one house, with Sullivan and an aging writer inside (“Mr. Lytle” is in fact a standout in a collection with no filler; fittingly, it won a National Magazine Award and a Pushcart Prize). But what are they about? Oh, Axl Rose, Christian Rock festivals, living around the filming of One Tree Hill , the Tea Party movement, Michael Jackson, Bunny Wailer, the influence of animals, and by god, the Miz (of Real World/Road Rules Challenge fame).

But as Dan Kois has pointed out , what connects these essays, apart from their general tone and excellence, is “their author’s essential curiosity about the world, his eye for the perfect detail, and his great good humor in revealing both his subjects’ and his own foibles.” They are also extremely well written, drawing much from fictional techniques and sentence craft, their literary pleasures so acute and remarkable that James Wood began his review of the collection in The New Yorker with a quiz: “Are the following sentences the beginnings of essays or of short stories?” (It was not a hard quiz, considering the context.)

It’s hard not to feel, reading this collection, like someone reached into your brain, took out the half-baked stuff you talk about with your friends, researched it, lived it, and represented it to you smarter and better and more thoroughly than you ever could. So read it in awe if you must, but read it.  –Emily Temple, Senior Editor

Aleksandar Hemon, The Book of My Lives (2013)

Such is the sentence-level virtuosity of Aleksandar Hemon—the Bosnian-American writer, essayist, and critic—that throughout his career he has frequently been compared to the granddaddy of borrowed language prose stylists: Vladimir Nabokov. While it is, of course, objectively remarkable that anyone could write so beautifully in a language they learned in their twenties, what I admire most about Hemon’s work is the way in which he infuses every essay and story and novel with both a deep humanity and a controlled (but never subdued) fury. He can also be damn funny. Hemon grew up in Sarajevo and left in 1992 to study in Chicago, where he almost immediately found himself stranded, forced to watch from afar as his beloved home city was subjected to a relentless four-year bombardment, the longest siege of a capital in the history of modern warfare. This extraordinary memoir-in-essays is many things: it’s a love letter to both the family that raised him and the family he built in exile; it’s a rich, joyous, and complex portrait of a place the 90s made synonymous with war and devastation; and it’s an elegy for the wrenching loss of precious things. There’s an essay about coming of age in Sarajevo and another about why he can’t bring himself to leave Chicago. There are stories about relationships forged and maintained on the soccer pitch or over the chessboard, and stories about neighbors and mentors turned monstrous by ethnic prejudice. As a chorus they sing with insight, wry humor, and unimaginable sorrow. I am not exaggerating when I say that the collection’s devastating final piece, “The Aquarium”—which details his infant daughter’s brain tumor and the agonizing months which led up to her death—remains the most painful essay I have ever read.  –Dan Sheehan, Book Marks Editor

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass (2013)

Of every essay in my relentlessly earmarked copy of Braiding Sweetgrass , Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer’s gorgeously rendered argument for why and how we should keep going, there’s one that especially hits home: her account of professor-turned-forester Franz Dolp. When Dolp, several decades ago, revisited the farm that he had once shared with his ex-wife, he found a scene of destruction: The farm’s new owners had razed the land where he had tried to build a life. “I sat among the stumps and the swirling red dust and I cried,” he wrote in his journal.

So many in my generation (and younger) feel this kind of helplessness–and considerable rage–at finding ourselves newly adult in a world where those in power seem determined to abandon or destroy everything that human bodies have always needed to survive: air, water, land. Asking any single book to speak to this helplessness feels unfair, somehow; yet, Braiding Sweetgrass does, by weaving descriptions of indigenous tradition with the environmental sciences in order to show what survival has looked like over the course of many millennia. Kimmerer’s essays describe her personal experience as a Potawotami woman, plant ecologist, and teacher alongside stories of the many ways that humans have lived in relationship to other species. Whether describing Dolp’s work–he left the stumps for a life of forest restoration on the Oregon coast–or the work of others in maple sugar harvesting, creating black ash baskets, or planting a Three Sisters garden of corn, beans, and squash, she brings hope. “In ripe ears and swelling fruit, they counsel us that all gifts are multiplied in relationship,” she writes of the Three Sisters, which all sustain one another as they grow. “This is how the world keeps going.”  –Corinne Segal, Senior Editor

Hilton Als, White Girls (2013)

In a world where we are so often reduced to one essential self, Hilton Als’ breathtaking book of critical essays, White Girls , which meditates on the ways he and other subjects read, project and absorb parts of white femininity, is a radically liberating book. It’s one of the only works of critical thinking that doesn’t ask the reader, its author or anyone he writes about to stoop before the doorframe of complete legibility before entering. Something he also permitted the subjects and readers of his first book, the glorious book-length essay, The Women , a series of riffs and psychological portraits of Dorothy Dean, Owen Dodson, and the author’s own mother, among others. One of the shifts of that book, uncommon at the time, was how it acknowledges the way we inhabit bodies made up of variously gendered influences. To read White Girls now is to experience the utter freedom of this gift and to marvel at Als’ tremendous versatility and intelligence.

He is easily the most diversely talented American critic alive. He can write into genres like pop music and film where being part of an audience is a fantasy happening in the dark. He’s also wired enough to know how the art world builds reputations on the nod of rich white patrons, a significant collision in a time when Jean-Michel Basquiat is America’s most expensive modern artist. Als’ swerving and always moving grip on performance means he’s especially good on describing the effect of art which is volatile and unstable and built on the mingling of made-up concepts and the hard fact of their effect on behavior, such as race. Writing on Flannery O’Connor for instance he alone puts a finger on her “uneasy and unavoidable union between black and white, the sacred and the profane, the shit and the stars.” From Eminem to Richard Pryor, André Leon Talley to Michael Jackson, Als enters the life and work of numerous artists here who turn the fascinations of race and with whiteness into fury and song and describes the complexity of their beauty like his life depended upon it. There are also brief memoirs here that will stop your heart. This is an essential work to understanding American culture.  –John Freeman, Executive Editor

Eula Biss, On Immunity (2014)

We move through the world as if we can protect ourselves from its myriad dangers, exercising what little agency we have in an effort to keep at bay those fears that gather at the edges of any given life: of loss, illness, disaster, death. It is these fears—amplified by the birth of her first child—that Eula Biss confronts in her essential 2014 essay collection, On Immunity . As any great essayist does, Biss moves outward in concentric circles from her own very private view of the world to reveal wider truths, discovering as she does a culture consumed by anxiety at the pervasive toxicity of contemporary life. As Biss interrogates this culture—of privilege, of whiteness—she interrogates herself, questioning the flimsy ways in which we arm ourselves with science or superstition against the impurities of daily existence.

Five years on from its publication, it is dismaying that On Immunity feels as urgent (and necessary) a defense of basic science as ever. Vaccination, we learn, is derived from vacca —for cow—after the 17th-century discovery that a small application of cowpox was often enough to inoculate against the scourge of smallpox, an etymological digression that belies modern conspiratorial fears of Big Pharma and its vaccination agenda. But Biss never scolds or belittles the fears of others, and in her generosity and openness pulls off a neat (and important) trick: insofar as we are of the very world we fear, she seems to be suggesting, we ourselves are impure, have always been so, permeable, vulnerable, yet so much stronger than we think.  –Jonny Diamond, Editor-in-Chief 

Rebecca Solnit, The Mother of All Questions (2016)

When Rebecca Solnit’s essay, “Men Explain Things to Me,” was published in 2008, it quickly became a cultural phenomenon unlike almost any other in recent memory, assigning language to a behavior that almost every woman has witnessed—mansplaining—and, in the course of identifying that behavior, spurring a movement, online and offline, to share the ways in which patriarchal arrogance has intersected all our lives. (It would also come to be the titular essay in her collection published in 2014.) The Mother of All Questions follows up on that work and takes it further in order to examine the nature of self-expression—who is afforded it and denied it, what institutions have been put in place to limit it, and what happens when it is employed by women. Solnit has a singular gift for describing and decoding the misogynistic dynamics that govern the world so universally that they can seem invisible and the gendered violence that is so common as to seem unremarkable; this naming is powerful, and it opens space for sharing the stories that shape our lives.

The Mother of All Questions, comprised of essays written between 2014 and 2016, in many ways armed us with some of the tools necessary to survive the gaslighting of the Trump years, in which many of us—and especially women—have continued to hear from those in power that the things we see and hear do not exist and never existed. Solnit also acknowledges that labels like “woman,” and other gendered labels, are identities that are fluid in reality; in reviewing the book for The New Yorker , Moira Donegan suggested that, “One useful working definition of a woman might be ‘someone who experiences misogyny.'” Whichever words we use, Solnit writes in the introduction to the book that “when words break through unspeakability, what was tolerated by a society sometimes becomes intolerable.” This storytelling work has always been vital; it continues to be vital, and in this book, it is brilliantly done.  –Corinne Segal, Senior Editor

Valeria Luiselli, Tell Me How It Ends (2017)

The newly minted MacArthur fellow Valeria Luiselli’s four-part (but really six-part) essay  Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions  was inspired by her time spent volunteering at the federal immigration court in New York City, working as an interpreter for undocumented, unaccompanied migrant children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. Written concurrently with her novel  Lost Children Archive  (a fictional exploration of the same topic), Luiselli’s essay offers a fascinating conceit, the fashioning of an argument from the questions on the government intake form given to these children to process their arrivals. (Aside from the fact that this essay is a heartbreaking masterpiece, this is such a  good  conceit—transforming a cold, reproducible administrative document into highly personal literature.) Luiselli interweaves a grounded discussion of the questionnaire with a narrative of the road trip Luiselli takes with her husband and family, across America, while they (both Mexican citizens) wait for their own Green Card applications to be processed. It is on this trip when Luiselli reflects on the thousands of migrant children mysteriously traveling across the border by themselves. But the real point of the essay is to actually delve into the real stories of some of these children, which are agonizing, as well as to gravely, clearly expose what literally happens, procedural, when they do arrive—from forms to courts, as they’re swallowed by a bureaucratic vortex. Amid all of this, Luiselli also takes on more, exploring the larger contextual relationship between the United States of America and Mexico (as well as other countries in Central America, more broadly) as it has evolved to our current, adverse moment.  Tell Me How It Ends  is so small, but it is so passionate and vigorous: it desperately accomplishes in its less-than-100-pages-of-prose what centuries and miles and endless records of federal bureaucracy have never been able, and have never cared, to do: reverse the dehumanization of Latin American immigrants that occurs once they set foot in this country.  –Olivia Rutigliano, CrimeReads Editorial Fellow

Zadie Smith, Feel Free (2018)

In the essay “Meet Justin Bieber!” in Feel Free , Zadie Smith writes that her interest in Justin Bieber is not an interest in the interiority of the singer himself, but in “the idea of the love object”. This essay—in which Smith imagines a meeting between Bieber and the late philosopher Martin Buber (“Bieber and Buber are alternative spellings of the same German surname,” she explains in one of many winning footnotes. “Who am I to ignore these hints from the universe?”). Smith allows that this premise is a bit premise -y: “I know, I know.” Still, the resulting essay is a very funny, very smart, and un-tricky exploration of individuality and true “meeting,” with a dash of late capitalism thrown in for good measure. The melding of high and low culture is the bread and butter of pretty much every prestige publication on the internet these days (and certainly of the Twitter feeds of all “public intellectuals”), but the essays in Smith’s collection don’t feel familiar—perhaps because hers is, as we’ve long known, an uncommon skill. Though I believe Smith could probably write compellingly about anything, she chooses her subjects wisely. She writes with as much electricity about Brexit as the aforementioned Beliebers—and each essay is utterly engrossing. “She contains multitudes, but her point is we all do,” writes Hermione Hoby in her review of the collection in The New Republic . “At the same time, we are, in our endless difference, nobody but ourselves.”  –Jessie Gaynor, Social Media Editor

Tressie McMillan Cottom, Thick: And Other Essays (2019)

Tressie McMillan Cottom is an academic who has transcended the ivory tower to become the sort of public intellectual who can easily appear on radio or television talk shows to discuss race, gender, and capitalism. Her collection of essays reflects this duality, blending scholarly work with memoir to create a collection on the black female experience in postmodern America that’s “intersectional analysis with a side of pop culture.” The essays range from an analysis of sexual violence, to populist politics, to social media, but in centering her own experiences throughout, the collection becomes something unlike other pieces of criticism of contemporary culture. In explaining the title, she reflects on what an editor had said about her work: “I was too readable to be academic, too deep to be popular, too country black to be literary, and too naïve to show the rigor of my thinking in the complexity of my prose. I had wanted to create something meaningful that sounded not only like me, but like all of me. It was too thick.” One of the most powerful essays in the book is “Dying to be Competent” which begins with her unpacking the idiocy of LinkedIn (and the myth of meritocracy) and ends with a description of her miscarriage, the mishandling of black woman’s pain, and a condemnation of healthcare bureaucracy. A finalist for the 2019 National Book Award for Nonfiction, Thick confirms McMillan Cottom as one of our most fearless public intellectuals and one of the most vital.  –Emily Firetog, Deputy Editor

Dissenting Opinions

The following books were just barely nudged out of the top ten, but we (or at least one of us) couldn’t let them pass without comment.

Elif Batuman, The Possessed (2010)

In The Possessed Elif Batuman indulges her love of Russian literature and the result is hilarious and remarkable. Each essay of the collection chronicles some adventure or other that she had while in graduate school for Comparative Literature and each is more unpredictable than the next. There’s the time a “well-known 20th-centuryist” gave a graduate student the finger; and the time when Batuman ended up living in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for a summer; and the time that she convinced herself Tolstoy was murdered and spent the length of the Tolstoy Conference in Yasnaya Polyana considering clues and motives. Rich in historic detail about Russian authors and literature and thoughtfully constructed, each essay is an amalgam of critical analysis, cultural criticism, and serious contemplation of big ideas like that of identity, intellectual legacy, and authorship. With wit and a serpentine-like shape to her narratives, Batuman adopts a form reminiscent of a Socratic discourse, setting up questions at the beginning of her essays and then following digressions that more or less entreat the reader to synthesize the answer for herself. The digressions are always amusing and arguably the backbone of the collection, relaying absurd anecdotes with foreign scholars or awkward, surreal encounters with Eastern European strangers. Central also to the collection are Batuman’s intellectual asides where she entertains a theory—like the “problem of the person”: the inability to ever wholly capture one’s character—that ultimately layer the book’s themes. “You are certainly my most entertaining student,” a professor said to Batuman. But she is also curious and enthusiastic and reflective and so knowledgeable that she might even convince you (she has me!) that you too love Russian literature as much as she does. –Eleni Theodoropoulos, Editorial Fellow

Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist (2014)

Roxane Gay’s now-classic essay collection is a book that will make you laugh, think, cry, and then wonder, how can cultural criticism be this fun? My favorite essays in the book include Gay’s musings on competitive Scrabble, her stranded-in-academia dispatches, and her joyous film and television criticism, but given the breadth of topics Roxane Gay can discuss in an entertaining manner, there’s something for everyone in this one. This book is accessible because feminism itself should be accessible – Roxane Gay is as likely to draw inspiration from YA novels, or middle-brow shows about friendship, as she is to introduce concepts from the academic world, and if there’s anyone I trust to bridge the gap between high culture, low culture, and pop culture, it’s the Goddess of Twitter. I used to host a book club dedicated to radical reads, and this was one of the first picks for the club; a week after the book club met, I spied a few of the attendees meeting in the café of the bookstore, and found out that they had bonded so much over discussing  Bad Feminist  that they couldn’t wait for the next meeting of the book club to keep discussing politics and intersectionality, and that, in a nutshell, is the power of Roxane. –Molly Odintz, CrimeReads Associate Editor

Rivka Galchen, Little Labors (2016)

Generally, I find stories about the trials and tribulations of child-having to be of limited appeal—useful, maybe, insofar as they offer validation that other people have also endured the bizarre realities of living with a tiny human, but otherwise liable to drift into the musings of parents thrilled at the simple fact of their own fecundity, as if they were the first ones to figure the process out (or not). But Little Labors is not simply an essay collection about motherhood, perhaps because Galchen initially “didn’t want to write about” her new baby—mostly, she writes, “because I had never been interested in babies, or mothers; in fact, those subjects had seemed perfectly not interesting to me.” Like many new mothers, though, Galchen soon discovered her baby—which she refers to sometimes as “the puma”—to be a preoccupying thought, demanding to be written about. Galchen’s interest isn’t just in her own progeny, but in babies in literature (“Literature has more dogs than babies, and also more abortions”), The Pillow Book , the eleventh-century collection of musings by Sei Shōnagon, and writers who are mothers. There are sections that made me laugh out loud, like when Galchen continually finds herself in an elevator with a neighbor who never fails to remark on the puma’s size. There are also deeper, darker musings, like the realization that the baby means “that it’s not permissible to die. There are days when this does not feel good.” It is a slim collection that I happened to read at the perfect time, and it remains one of my favorites of the decade. –Emily Firetog, Deputy Editor

Charlie Fox, This Young Monster (2017)

On social media as in his writing, British art critic Charlie Fox rejects lucidity for allusion and doesn’t quite answer the Twitter textbox’s persistent question: “What’s happening?” These days, it’s hard to tell.  This Young Monster  (2017), Fox’s first book,was published a few months after Donald Trump’s election, and at one point Fox takes a swipe at a man he judges “direct from a nightmare and just a repulsive fucking goon.” Fox doesn’t linger on politics, though, since most of the monsters he looks at “embody otherness and make it into art, ripping any conventional idea of beauty to shreds and replacing it with something weird and troubling of their own invention.”

If clichés are loathed because they conform to what philosopher Georges Bataille called “the common measure,” then monsters are rebellious non-sequiturs, comedic or horrific derailments from a classical ideal. Perverts in the most literal sense, monsters have gone astray from some “proper” course. The book’s nine chapters, which are about a specific monster or type of monster, are full of callbacks to familiar and lesser-known media. Fox cites visual art, film, songs, and books with the screwy buoyancy of a savant. Take one of his essays, “Spook House,” framed as a stage play with two principal characters, Klaus (“an intoxicated young skinhead vampire”) and Hermione (“a teen sorceress with green skin and jet-black hair” who looks more like The Wicked Witch than her namesake). The chorus is a troupe of trick-or-treaters. Using the filmmaker Cameron Jamie as a starting point, the rest is free association on gothic decadence and Detroit and L.A. as cities of the dead. All the while, Klaus quotes from  Artforum ,  Dazed & Confused , and  Time Out. It’s a technical feat that makes fictionalized dialogue a conveyor belt for cultural criticism.

In Fox’s imagination, David Bowie and the Hydra coexist alongside Peter Pan, Dennis Hopper, and the maenads. Fox’s book reaches for the monster’s mask, not really to peel it off but to feel and smell the rubber schnoz, to know how it’s made before making sure it’s still snugly set. With a stylistic blend of arthouse suavity and B-movie chic,  This Young Monster considers how monsters in culture are made. Aren’t the scariest things made in post-production? Isn’t the creature just duplicity, like a looping choir or a dubbed scream? –Aaron Robertson, Assistant Editor

Elena Passarello, Animals Strike Curious Poses (2017)

Elena Passarello’s collection of essays Animals Strike Curious Poses picks out infamous animals and grants them the voice, narrative, and history they deserve. Not only is a collection like this relevant during the sixth extinction but it is an ambitious historical and anthropological undertaking, which Passarello has tackled with thorough research and a playful tone that rather than compromise her subject, complicates and humanizes it. Passarello’s intention is to investigate the role of animals across the span of human civilization and in doing so, to construct a timeline of humanity as told through people’s interactions with said animals. “Of all the images that make our world, animal images are particularly buried inside us,” Passarello writes in her first essay, to introduce us to the object of the book and also to the oldest of her chosen characters: Yuka, a 39,000-year-old mummified woolly mammoth discovered in the Siberian permafrost in 2010. It was an occasion so remarkable and so unfathomable given the span of human civilization that Passarello says of Yuka: “Since language is epically younger than both thought and experience, ‘woolly mammoth’ means, to a human brain, something more like time.” The essay ends with a character placing a hand on a cave drawing of a woolly mammoth, accompanied by a phrase which encapsulates the author’s vision for the book: “And he becomes the mammoth so he can envision the mammoth.” In Passarello’s hands the imagined boundaries between the animal, natural, and human world disintegrate and what emerges is a cohesive if baffling integrated history of life. With the accuracy and tenacity of a journalist and the spirit of a storyteller, Elena Passarello has assembled a modern bestiary worthy of contemplation and awe. –Eleni Theodoropoulos, Editorial Fellow

Esmé Weijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias (2019)

Esmé Weijun Wang’s collection of essays is a kaleidoscopic look at mental health and the lives affected by the schizophrenias. Each essay takes on a different aspect of the topic, but you’ll want to read them together for a holistic perspective. Esmé Weijun Wang generously begins The Collected Schizophrenias by acknowledging the stereotype, “Schizophrenia terrifies. It is the archetypal disorder of lunacy.” From there, she walks us through the technical language, breaks down the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual ( DSM-5 )’s clinical definition. And then she gets very personal, telling us about how she came to her own diagnosis and the way it’s touched her daily life (her relationships, her ideas about motherhood). Esmé Weijun Wang is uniquely situated to write about this topic. As a former lab researcher at Stanford, she turns a precise, analytical eye to her experience while simultaneously unfolding everything with great patience for her reader. Throughout, she brilliantly dissects the language around mental health. (On saying “a person living with bipolar disorder” instead of using “bipolar” as the sole subject: “…we are not our diseases. We are instead individuals with disorders and malfunctions. Our conditions lie over us like smallpox blankets; we are one thing and the illness is another.”) She pinpoints the ways she arms herself against anticipated reactions to the schizophrenias: high fashion, having attended an Ivy League institution. In a particularly piercing essay, she traces mental illness back through her family tree. She also places her story within more mainstream cultural contexts, calling on groundbreaking exposés about the dangerous of institutionalization and depictions of mental illness in television and film (like the infamous Slender Man case, in which two young girls stab their best friend because an invented Internet figure told them to). At once intimate and far-reaching, The Collected Schizophrenias is an informative and important (and let’s not forget artful) work. I’ve never read a collection quite so beautifully-written and laid-bare as this. –Katie Yee, Book Marks Assistant Editor

Ross Gay, The Book of Delights (2019)

When Ross Gay began writing what would become The Book of Delights, he envisioned it as a project of daily essays, each focused on a moment or point of delight in his day. This plan quickly disintegrated; on day four, he skipped his self-imposed assignment and decided to “in honor and love, delight in blowing it off.” (Clearly, “blowing it off” is a relative term here, as he still produced the book.) Ross Gay is a generous teacher of how to live, and this moment of reveling in self-compassion is one lesson among many in The Book of Delights , which wanders from moments of connection with strangers to a shade of “red I don’t think I actually have words for,” a text from a friend reading “I love you breadfruit,” and “the sun like a guiding hand on my back, saying everything is possible. Everything .”

Gay does not linger on any one subject for long, creating the sense that delight is a product not of extenuating circumstances, but of our attention; his attunement to the possibilities of a single day, and awareness of all the small moments that produce delight, are a model for life amid the warring factions of the attention economy. These small moments range from the physical–hugging a stranger, transplanting fig cuttings–to the spiritual and philosophical, giving the impression of sitting beside Gay in his garden as he thinks out loud in real time. It’s a privilege to listen. –Corinne Segal, Senior Editor

Honorable Mentions

A selection of other books that we seriously considered for both lists—just to be extra about it (and because decisions are hard).

Terry Castle, The Professor and Other Writings (2010) · Joyce Carol Oates, In Rough Country (2010) · Geoff Dyer, Otherwise Known as the Human Condition (2011) · Christopher Hitchens, Arguably (2011) ·  Roberto Bolaño, tr. Natasha Wimmer, Between Parentheses (2011) · Dubravka Ugresic, tr. David Williams, Karaoke Culture (2011) · Tom Bissell, Magic Hours (2012)  · Kevin Young, The Grey Album (2012) · William H. Gass, Life Sentences: Literary Judgments and Accounts (2012) · Mary Ruefle, Madness, Rack, and Honey (2012) · Herta Müller, tr. Geoffrey Mulligan, Cristina and Her Double (2013) · Leslie Jamison, The Empathy Exams (2014)  · Meghan Daum, The Unspeakable (2014)  · Daphne Merkin, The Fame Lunches (2014)  · Charles D’Ambrosio, Loitering (2015) · Wendy Walters, Multiply/Divide (2015) · Colm Tóibín, On Elizabeth Bishop (2015) ·  Renee Gladman, Calamities (2016)  · Jesmyn Ward, ed. The Fire This Time (2016)  · Lindy West, Shrill (2016)  · Mary Oliver, Upstream (2016)  · Emily Witt, Future Sex (2016)  · Olivia Laing, The Lonely City (2016)  · Mark Greif, Against Everything (2016)  · Durga Chew-Bose, Too Much and Not the Mood (2017)  · Sarah Gerard, Sunshine State (2017)  · Jim Harrison, A Really Big Lunch (2017)  · J.M. Coetzee, Late Essays: 2006-2017 (2017) · Melissa Febos, Abandon Me (2017)  · Louise Glück, American Originality (2017)  · Joan Didion, South and West (2017)  · Tom McCarthy, Typewriters, Bombs, Jellyfish (2017)  · Hanif Abdurraqib, They Can’t Kill Us Until they Kill Us (2017)  · Ta-Nehisi Coates, We Were Eight Years in Power (2017)  ·  Samantha Irby, We Are Never Meeting in Real Life (2017)  · Alexander Chee, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel (2018)  · Alice Bolin, Dead Girls (2018)  · Marilynne Robinson, What Are We Doing Here? (2018)  · Lorrie Moore, See What Can Be Done (2018)  · Maggie O’Farrell, I Am I Am I Am (2018)  · Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race (2018)  · Rachel Cusk, Coventry (2019)  · Jia Tolentino, Trick Mirror (2019)  · Emily Bernard, Black is the Body (2019)  · Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard (2019)  · Margaret Renkl, Late Migrations (2019)  ·  Rachel Munroe, Savage Appetites (2019)  · Robert A. Caro,  Working  (2019) · Arundhati Roy, My Seditious Heart (2019).

Emily Temple

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The Editor’s Manual

Free learning resource on English grammar, punctuation, usage, and style.

How to Write the Century

Write centuries in either numerals or words. Names of specific centuries are spelled out in some styles and written in figures in others. Single-digit centuries are generally spelled out.

• the nineteenth century or the 19th century
• the sixth century

Don’t set the letters denoting ordinals in superscript.

• the 21st century, not the 21 st century

An apostrophe before the s in names of centuries is unnecessary, but not incorrect.

• the 1600s or the 1600’s

Avoid capitalizing names of centuries.

• the twentieth century, not the Twentieth century

What years make a century?

A century is a period of 100 years . A specific century begins with year 01: the twentieth century began in 1901 and ended at the end of the year 2000, the twenty-first century began in 2001, and so on. Centuries may be written in various styles : in numerals , words, or a combination of both, and with an apostrophe or without.

• Medical science progressed by gigantic leaps and bounds in the twentieth century .
• The 1800s saw the advent of globalization.
• Anita has written a paper on maritime trade in the 1600’s .
• One of the great discoveries of the 21st century has been the existence of gravitational waves.

The first century ran from year 1 to year 100, so each new century begins from a year ending in 01. Thus, the twenty-first century officially began on January 1, 2001. However, in popular usage, a new century is often thought to begin in the year the digits change—for example, when the year changed from 19 99 to 20 00.

Use of BC, AD, BCE, and CE

The abbreviations BCE (“before the Common Era”) and CE (“of the Common Era) or BC (“before Christ”) and AD ( anno Domini ) to denote the era may be used with centuries, though they are more often used to show the exact year. No comma is needed before the abbreviation. The abbreviations themselves generally don’t contain periods .

• In the 13th century AD , Genghis Khan began his conquest of the world.
• Alexander the Great lived and died in the fourth century BCE .

BCE and CE are alternatives to BC and AD. The two systems are numerically equivalent.

1800s or 19th century ?

Both forms of usage are correct: “the 1800s” and “the 19th (or nineteenth) century.” Since the years of the nineteenth century begin with the numerals “18,” it is also called the “1800s” (pronounced eighteen hundreds ). No apostrophe is necessary before the s .

• The 1800s was a time of industrialization. or The 19th century was a time of industrialization.
• The Renaissance began in Italy in the 1300s . or The Renaissance began in Italy in the fourteenth century .

Centuries written in numerals—e.g., “the 1600s”—may be either singular or plural ( the 1600s was or were ), depending on context and preference.

Terms like “1900s” and “2000s” can also mean the first decade of a century (e.g., 2000s, 2010s, 2020s). Context usually makes it clear whether you are referring to the century or the decade. If confusion is possible, prefer to clarify: “the 20th century,” instead of “the 1900s.”

Use of apostrophe

An apostrophe before the s in the name of a century is unnecessary (though not incorrect) and generally omitted in formal writing.

• The 1600s marked the end of the Middle Ages in Europe. 1600’s is not incorrect but unnecessary.
• The 1700s saw a revival of literature in England.
• Industrialization in the 1800s affected different regions of the world differently.

Most style guides, like the AP Stylebook , the Chicago Manual of Style , and the APA Publication Manual , advise against using an apostrophe in plural words, except when not using one would cause confusion.

Words vs. numerals

Centuries may be written in either words or numerals. Note however that in formal writing, single-digit centuries (e.g., the ninth century) are generally spelled out instead of being written in figures. Double-digit centuries may be written either way (e.g., the 21st or the twenty-first century).

• Just like us, people of the seventh century believed they lived in modern times.
• Since the 19th/nineteenth century , humans have relied on science to extend their life spans.

Always use words instead of numerals for names of centuries at the start of a sentence. (Numerals are generally not used to begin a sentence.)

• Poor: 17th-century playwrights like Shakespeare and Beaumont are still studied in schools. Better: Seventeenth-century playwrights like Shakespeare and Beaumont are still studied in schools.

Chicago vs. AP style

The Chicago Manual of Style suggests spelling out the number denoting the century, while the AP Stylebook recommends words for numbers up to 10 , and numerals thereafter.

• Chicago: The twentieth century ushered in the digital age. AP: The 20th century ushered in the digital age. For two-digit centuries, use words in Chicago style but numerals in AP style.
• Chicago, AP: Her paper discusses the role of doctors as diplomats in the sixth century AD. Spell out single-digit centuries in both Chicago and AP styles.

Style guides differ in their recommendations on whether to use numerals or words for the name of a century. Wikipedia , for instance, uses numerals for all centuries.

Whether to use numerals or words is a matter of style rather than grammar. Which style you use can depend on your field of study or the style manual followed by your university or publication. Make sure to follow a consistent style throughout your document. As an editor , respect the writer’s preference.

Superscript for ordinal numbers

Since centuries occur in chronological sequence, they are written as ordinal numbers. When using numerals, avoid using superscript for letters that denote the ordinal ( st , nd , rd , th ).

• Poor: Because of mass vaccination programs, child mortality rates fell significantly in the 20 th century. Better: Because of mass vaccination programs, child mortality rates fell significantly in the 20th century.
• Poor: This book discusses issues of privacy in the 21 st century. Better: This book discusses issues of privacy in the 21st century.

Most style guides recommend against using superscript for ordinal numbers, since it can affect readability across fonts and typefaces.

Use of hyphen

Use a hyphen to show two-digit numbers in names of centuries from the twenty-first century onward.

Hyphenate two-digit numbers for clarity ( ninety-nine cupcakes , one hundred seventy-five muffins ).

Don’t unnecessarily place a hyphen between the number and the word century .

• Incorrect: the twenty-first-century Correct: the twenty-first century

Capitalization

Don’t capitalize the names of centuries, unless part of a proper noun or a title .

• Incorrect: Her new historical novel is set in the Eighteenth century. Correct: Her new historical novel is set in the eighteenth century.
• Incorrect: The East India Company was involved in the slave trade of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries . Correct: The East India Company was involved in the slave trade of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries .

Of course, in proper nouns , capitalize as needed.

• Twentieth Century Fox

Also capitalize major words in book titles.

• The Nineteenth-Century Guide to Baking

Two or more centuries: Singular or plural?

When referring to two or more centuries together, use the plural word centuries if the names of the centuries are joined by and or through . Use the singular word century if they are joined by to or or .

• The 17th, 18th , and 19th centuries shaped the postcolonial world of the 20th century.
• The medieval period lasted from the fifth through fifteenth centuries in Europe.
• Renaissance art of the 14th to the 16th century marks a clear break from medieval values.
• Did Jane Austen live and write in the 18th or the 19th century ?

Share this article

Names of centuries may be written in either numerals or words.

Omit the apostrophe before the s in names of centuries (like “the 1400s”) in formal texts.

Hyphenate two-digit numbers in names of centuries.

Don’t capitalize the names of centuries.

50 Must-Read Contemporary Essay Collections

Liberty Hardy

Liberty Hardy is an unrepentant velocireader, writer, bitey mad lady, and tattoo canvas. Turn-ons include books, books and books. Her favorite exclamation is “Holy cats!” Liberty reads more than should be legal, sleeps very little, frequently writes on her belly with Sharpie markers, and when she dies, she’s leaving her body to library science. Until then, she lives with her three cats, Millay, Farrokh, and Zevon, in Maine. She is also right behind you. Just kidding! She’s too busy reading. Twitter: @MissLiberty

View All posts by Liberty Hardy

I feel like essay collections don’t get enough credit. They’re so wonderful! They’re like short story collections, but TRUE. It’s like going to a truth buffet. You can get information about sooooo many topics, sometimes in one single book! To prove that there are a zillion amazing essay collections out there, I compiled 50 great contemporary essay collections, just from the last 18 months alone.  Ranging in topics from food, nature, politics, sex, celebrity, and more, there is something here for everyone!

I’ve included a brief description from the publisher with each title. Tell us in the comments about which of these you’ve read or other contemporary essay collections that you love. There are a LOT of them. Yay, books!

Must-Read Contemporary Essay Collections

They can’t kill us until they kill us  by hanif abdurraqib.

“In an age of confusion, fear, and loss, Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib’s is a voice that matters. Whether he’s attending a Bruce Springsteen concert the day after visiting Michael Brown’s grave, or discussing public displays of affection at a Carly Rae Jepsen show, he writes with a poignancy and magnetism that resonates profoundly.”

Would Everybody Please Stop?: Reflections on Life and Other Bad Ideas  by Jenny Allen

“Jenny Allen’s musings range fluidly from the personal to the philosophical. She writes with the familiarity of someone telling a dinner party anecdote, forgoing decorum for candor and comedy. To read  Would Everybody Please Stop?  is to experience life with imaginative and incisive humor.”

Longthroat Memoirs: Soups, Sex and Nigerian Taste Buds  by Yemisi Aribisala

“A sumptuous menu of essays about Nigerian cuisine, lovingly presented by the nation’s top epicurean writer. As well as a mouth-watering appraisal of Nigerian food,  Longthroat Memoirs  is a series of love letters to the Nigerian palate. From the cultural history of soup, to fish as aphrodisiac and the sensual allure of snails,  Longthroat Memoirs  explores the complexities, the meticulousness, and the tactile joy of Nigerian gastronomy.”

Beyond Measure: Essays  by Rachel Z. Arndt

“ Beyond Measure  is a fascinating exploration of the rituals, routines, metrics and expectations through which we attempt to quantify and ascribe value to our lives. With mordant humor and penetrating intellect, Arndt casts her gaze beyond event-driven narratives to the machinery underlying them: judo competitions measured in weigh-ins and wait times; the significance of the elliptical’s stationary churn; the rote scripts of dating apps; the stupefying sameness of the daily commute.”

Magic Hours  by Tom Bissell

“Award-winning essayist Tom Bissell explores the highs and lows of the creative process. He takes us from the set of  The Big Bang Theory  to the first novel of Ernest Hemingway to the final work of David Foster Wallace; from the films of Werner Herzog to the film of Tommy Wiseau to the editorial meeting in which Paula Fox’s work was relaunched into the world. Originally published in magazines such as  The Believer ,  The New Yorker , and  Harper’s , these essays represent ten years of Bissell’s best writing on every aspect of creation—be it Iraq War documentaries or video-game character voices—and will provoke as much thought as they do laughter.”

Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession  by Alice Bolin

“In this poignant collection, Alice Bolin examines iconic American works from the essays of Joan Didion and James Baldwin to  Twin Peaks , Britney Spears, and  Serial , illuminating the widespread obsession with women who are abused, killed, and disenfranchised, and whose bodies (dead and alive) are used as props to bolster men’s stories. Smart and accessible, thoughtful and heartfelt, Bolin investigates the implications of our cultural fixations, and her own role as a consumer and creator.”

Betwixt-and-Between: Essays on the Writing Life  by Jenny Boully

“Jenny Boully’s essays are ripe with romance and sensual pleasures, drawing connections between the digression, reflection, imagination, and experience that characterizes falling in love as well as the life of a writer. Literary theory, philosophy, and linguistics rub up against memory, dreamscapes, and fancy, making the practice of writing a metaphor for the illusory nature of experience.  Betwixt and Between  is, in many ways, simply a book about how to live.”

Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give by Ada Calhoun

“In  Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give , Ada Calhoun presents an unflinching but also loving portrait of her own marriage, opening a long-overdue conversation about the institution as it truly is: not the happy ending of a love story or a relic doomed by high divorce rates, but the beginning of a challenging new chapter of which ‘the first twenty years are the hardest.'”

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays  by Alexander Chee

“ How to Write an Autobiographical Novel  is the author’s manifesto on the entangling of life, literature, and politics, and how the lessons learned from a life spent reading and writing fiction have changed him. In these essays, he grows from student to teacher, reader to writer, and reckons with his identities as a son, a gay man, a Korean American, an artist, an activist, a lover, and a friend. He examines some of the most formative experiences of his life and the nation’s history, including his father’s death, the AIDS crisis, 9/11, the jobs that supported his writing—Tarot-reading, bookselling, cater-waiting for William F. Buckley—the writing of his first novel,  Edinburgh , and the election of Donald Trump.”

Too Much and Not the Mood: Essays  by Durga Chew-Bose

“ Too Much and Not the Mood is a beautiful and surprising exploration of what it means to be a first-generation, creative young woman working today. On April 11, 1931, Virginia Woolf ended her entry in A Writer’s Diary with the words ‘too much and not the mood’ to describe her frustration with placating her readers, what she described as the ‘cramming in and the cutting out.’ She wondered if she had anything at all that was truly worth saying. The attitude of that sentiment inspired Durga Chew-Bose to gather own writing in this lyrical collection of poetic essays that examine personhood and artistic growth. Drawing inspiration from a diverse group of incisive and inquiring female authors, Chew-Bose captures the inner restlessness that keeps her always on the brink of creative expression.”

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy  by Ta-Nehisi Coates

“‘We were eight years in power’ was the lament of Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American experiment in multiracial democracy ended with the return of white supremacist rule in the South. In this sweeping collection of new and selected essays, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the tragic echoes of that history in our own time: the unprecedented election of a black president followed by a vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man Coates argues is America’s ‘first white president.'”

Look Alive Out There: Essays by Sloane Crosley

“In  Look Alive Out There,  whether it’s scaling active volcanoes, crashing shivas, playing herself on  Gossip Girl,  befriending swingers, or squinting down the barrel of the fertility gun, Crosley continues to rise to the occasion with unmatchable nerve and electric one-liners. And as her subjects become more serious, her essays deliver not just laughs but lasting emotional heft and insight. Crosley has taken up the gauntlets thrown by her predecessors—Dorothy Parker, Nora Ephron, David Sedaris—and crafted something rare, affecting, and true.”

Fl â neuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London  by Lauren Elkin

“Part cultural meander, part memoir,  Flâneuse  takes us on a distinctly cosmopolitan jaunt that begins in New York, where Elkin grew up, and transports us to Paris via Venice, Tokyo, and London, all cities in which she’s lived. We are shown the paths beaten by such  flâneuses  as the cross-dressing nineteenth-century novelist George Sand, the Parisian artist Sophie Calle, the wartime correspondent Martha Gellhorn, and the writer Jean Rhys. With tenacity and insight, Elkin creates a mosaic of what urban settings have meant to women, charting through literature, art, history, and film the sometimes exhilarating, sometimes fraught relationship that women have with the metropolis.”

Idiophone  by Amy Fusselman

“Leaping from ballet to quiltmaking, from the The Nutcracker to an Annie-B Parson interview,  Idiophone  is a strikingly original meditation on risk-taking and provocation in art and a unabashedly honest, funny, and intimate consideration of art-making in the context of motherhood, and motherhood in the context of addiction. Amy Fusselman’s compact, beautifully digressive essay feels both surprising and effortless, fueled by broad-ranging curiosity, and, fundamentally, joy.”

Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture  by Roxane Gay

“In this valuable and revealing anthology, cultural critic and bestselling author Roxane Gay collects original and previously published pieces that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face, and where they are ‘routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied’ for speaking out.”

Sunshine State: Essays  by Sarah Gerard

“With the personal insight of  The Empathy Exams , the societal exposal of  Nickel and Dimed , and the stylistic innovation and intensity of her own break-out debut novel  Binary Star , Sarah Gerard’s  Sunshine State  uses the intimately personal to unearth the deep reservoirs of humanity buried in the corners of our world often hardest to face.”

The Art of the Wasted Day  by Patricia Hampl

“ The Art of the Wasted Day  is a picaresque travelogue of leisure written from a lifelong enchantment with solitude. Patricia Hampl visits the homes of historic exemplars of ease who made repose a goal, even an art form. She begins with two celebrated eighteenth-century Irish ladies who ran off to live a life of ‘retirement’ in rural Wales. Her search then leads to Moravia to consider the monk-geneticist, Gregor Mendel, and finally to Bordeaux for Michel Montaigne—the hero of this book—who retreated from court life to sit in his chateau tower and write about whatever passed through his mind, thus inventing the personal essay.”

A Really Big Lunch: The Roving Gourmand on Food and Life  by Jim Harrison

“Jim Harrison’s legendary gourmandise is on full display in  A Really Big Lunch . From the titular  New Yorker  piece about a French lunch that went to thirty-seven courses, to pieces from  Brick ,  Playboy , Kermit Lynch Newsletter, and more on the relationship between hunter and prey, or the obscure language of wine reviews,  A Really Big Lunch  is shot through with Harrison’s pointed aperçus and keen delight in the pleasures of the senses. And between the lines the pieces give glimpses of Harrison’s life over the last three decades.  A Really Big Lunch  is a literary delight that will satisfy every appetite.”

Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me  by Bill Hayes

“Bill Hayes came to New York City in 2009 with a one-way ticket and only the vaguest idea of how he would get by. But, at forty-eight years old, having spent decades in San Francisco, he craved change. Grieving over the death of his partner, he quickly discovered the profound consolations of the city’s incessant rhythms, the sight of the Empire State Building against the night sky, and New Yorkers themselves, kindred souls that Hayes, a lifelong insomniac, encountered on late-night strolls with his camera.”

Would You Rather?: A Memoir of Growing Up and Coming Out  by Katie Heaney

“Here, for the first time, Katie opens up about realizing at the age of twenty-eight that she is gay. In these poignant, funny essays, she wrestles with her shifting sexuality and identity, and describes what it was like coming out to everyone she knows (and everyone she doesn’t). As she revisits her past, looking for any ‘clues’ that might have predicted this outcome, Katie reveals that life doesn’t always move directly from point A to point B—no matter how much we would like it to.”

Tonight I’m Someone Else: Essays  by Chelsea Hodson

“From graffiti gangs and  Grand Theft Auto  to sugar daddies, Schopenhauer, and a deadly game of Russian roulette, in these essays, Chelsea Hodson probes her own desires to examine where the physical and the proprietary collide. She asks what our privacy, our intimacy, and our own bodies are worth in the increasingly digital world of liking, linking, and sharing.”

We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.: Essays  by Samantha Irby

“With  We Are Never Meeting in Real Life. , ‘bitches gotta eat’ blogger and comedian Samantha Irby turns the serio-comic essay into an art form. Whether talking about how her difficult childhood has led to a problem in making ‘adult’ budgets, explaining why she should be the new Bachelorette—she’s ’35-ish, but could easily pass for 60-something’—detailing a disastrous pilgrimage-slash-romantic-vacation to Nashville to scatter her estranged father’s ashes, sharing awkward sexual encounters, or dispensing advice on how to navigate friendships with former drinking buddies who are now suburban moms—hang in there for the Costco loot—she’s as deft at poking fun at the ghosts of her past self as she is at capturing powerful emotional truths.”

This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America  by Morgan Jerkins

“Doubly disenfranchised by race and gender, often deprived of a place within the mostly white mainstream feminist movement, black women are objectified, silenced, and marginalized with devastating consequences, in ways both obvious and subtle, that are rarely acknowledged in our country’s larger discussion about inequality. In  This Will Be My Undoing , Jerkins becomes both narrator and subject to expose the social, cultural, and historical story of black female oppression that influences the black community as well as the white, male-dominated world at large.”

Everywhere Home: A Life in Essays  by Fenton Johnson

“Part retrospective, part memoir, Fenton Johnson’s collection  Everywhere Home: A Life in Essays  explores sexuality, religion, geography, the AIDS crisis, and more. Johnson’s wanderings take him from the hills of Kentucky to those of San Francisco, from the streets of Paris to the sidewalks of Calcutta. Along the way, he investigates questions large and small: What’s the relationship between artists and museums, illuminated in a New Guinean display of shrunken heads? What’s the difference between empiricism and intuition?”

One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter: Essays  by Scaachi Koul

“In  One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter , Scaachi Koul deploys her razor-sharp humor to share all the fears, outrages, and mortifying moments of her life. She learned from an early age what made her miserable, and for Scaachi anything can be cause for despair. Whether it’s a shopping trip gone awry; enduring awkward conversations with her bikini waxer; overcoming her fear of flying while vacationing halfway around the world; dealing with Internet trolls, or navigating the fears and anxieties of her parents. Alongside these personal stories are pointed observations about life as a woman of color: where every aspect of her appearance is open for critique, derision, or outright scorn; where strict gender rules bind in both Western and Indian cultures, leaving little room for a woman not solely focused on marriage and children to have a career (and a life) for herself.”

Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions  by Valeria Luiselli and jon lee anderson (translator)

“A damning confrontation between the American dream and the reality of undocumented children seeking a new life in the U.S. Structured around the 40 questions Luiselli translates and asks undocumented Latin American children facing deportation,  Tell Me How It Ends  (an expansion of her 2016 Freeman’s essay of the same name) humanizes these young migrants and highlights the contradiction between the idea of America as a fiction for immigrants and the reality of racism and fear—both here and back home.”

All the Lives I Want: Essays About My Best Friends Who Happen to Be Famous Strangers  by Alana Massey

“Mixing Didion’s affected cool with moments of giddy celebrity worship, Massey examines the lives of the women who reflect our greatest aspirations and darkest fears back onto us. These essays are personal without being confessional and clever in a way that invites readers into the joke. A cultural critique and a finely wrought fan letter, interwoven with stories that are achingly personal, All the Lives I Want is also an exploration of mental illness, the sex industry, and the dangers of loving too hard.”

Typewriters, Bombs, Jellyfish: Essays  by Tom McCarthy

“Certain points of reference recur with dreamlike insistence—among them the artist Ed Ruscha’s  Royal Road Test , a photographic documentation of the roadside debris of a Royal typewriter hurled from the window of a traveling car; the great blooms of jellyfish that are filling the oceans and gumming up the machinery of commerce and military domination—and the question throughout is: How can art explode the restraining conventions of so-called realism, whether aesthetic or political, to engage in the active reinvention of the world?”

Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump’s America  by Samhita Mukhopadhyay and Kate Harding

“When 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump and 94 percent of black women voted for Hillary Clinton, how can women unite in Trump’s America? Nasty Women includes inspiring essays from a diverse group of talented women writers who seek to provide a broad look at how we got here and what we need to do to move forward.”

Don’t Call Me Princess: Essays on Girls, Women, Sex, and Life  by Peggy Orenstein

“Named one of the ’40 women who changed the media business in the last 40 years’ by  Columbia Journalism Review , Peggy Orenstein is one of the most prominent, unflinching feminist voices of our time. Her writing has broken ground and broken silences on topics as wide-ranging as miscarriage, motherhood, breast cancer, princess culture and the importance of girls’ sexual pleasure. Her unique blend of investigative reporting, personal revelation and unexpected humor has made her books bestselling classics.”

When You Find Out the World Is Against You: And Other Funny Memories About Awful Moments  by Kelly Oxford

“Kelly Oxford likes to blow up the internet. Whether it is with the kind of Tweets that lead  Rolling Stone  to name her one of the Funniest People on Twitter or with pictures of her hilariously adorable family (human and animal) or with something much more serious, like creating the hashtag #NotOkay, where millions of women came together to share their stories of sexual assault, Kelly has a unique, razor-sharp perspective on modern life. As a screen writer, professional sh*t disturber, wife and mother of three, Kelly is about everything but the status quo.”

Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman  by Anne Helen Petersen

“You know the type: the woman who won’t shut up, who’s too brazen, too opinionated—too much. She’s the unruly woman, and she embodies one of the most provocative and powerful forms of womanhood today. In  Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud , Anne Helen Petersen uses the lens of ‘unruliness’ to explore the ascension of pop culture powerhouses like Lena Dunham, Nicki Minaj, and Kim Kardashian, exploring why the public loves to love (and hate) these controversial figures. With its brisk, incisive analysis,  Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud  will be a conversation-starting book on what makes and breaks celebrity today.”

Well, That Escalated Quickly: Memoirs and Mistakes of an Accidental Activist  by Franchesca Ramsey

“In her first book, Ramsey uses her own experiences as an accidental activist to explore the many ways we communicate with each other—from the highs of bridging gaps and making connections to the many pitfalls that accompany talking about race, power, sexuality, and gender in an unpredictable public space…the internet.”

Shrewed: A Wry and Closely Observed Look at the Lives of Women and Girls  by Elizabeth Renzetti

“Drawing upon Renzetti’s decades of reporting on feminist issues,  Shrewed  is a book about feminism’s crossroads. From Hillary Clinton’s failed campaign to the quest for equal pay, from the lessons we can learn from old ladies to the future of feminism in a turbulent world, Renzetti takes a pointed, witty look at how far we’ve come—and how far we have to go.”

What Are We Doing Here?: Essays  by Marilynne Robinson

“In this new essay collection she trains her incisive mind on our modern political climate and the mysteries of faith. Whether she is investigating how the work of great thinkers about America like Emerson and Tocqueville inform our political consciousness or discussing the way that beauty informs and disciplines daily life, Robinson’s peerless prose and boundless humanity are on full display.”

Double Bind: Women on Ambition  by Robin Romm

“‘A work of courage and ferocious honesty’ (Diana Abu-Jaber),  Double Bind  could not come at a more urgent time. Even as major figures from Gloria Steinem to Beyoncé embrace the word ‘feminism,’ the word ‘ambition’ remains loaded with ambivalence. Many women see it as synonymous with strident or aggressive, yet most feel compelled to strive and achieve—the seeming contradiction leaving them in a perpetual double bind. Ayana Mathis, Molly Ringwald, Roxane Gay, and a constellation of ‘nimble thinkers . . . dismantle this maddening paradox’ ( O, The Oprah Magazine ) with candor, wit, and rage. Women who have made landmark achievements in fields as diverse as law, dog sledding, and butchery weigh in, breaking the last feminist taboo once and for all.”

The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers and Life  by Richard Russo

“In these nine essays, Richard Russo provides insight into his life as a writer, teacher, friend, and reader. From a commencement speech he gave at Colby College, to the story of how an oddly placed toilet made him reevaluate the purpose of humor in art and life, to a comprehensive analysis of Mark Twain’s value, to his harrowing journey accompanying a dear friend as she pursued gender-reassignment surgery,  The Destiny Thief  reflects the broad interests and experiences of one of America’s most beloved authors. Warm, funny, wise, and poignant, the essays included here traverse Russo’s writing life, expanding our understanding of who he is and how his singular, incredibly generous mind works. An utter joy to read, they give deep insight into the creative process from the prospective of one of our greatest writers.”

Curry: Eating, Reading, and Race by Naben Ruthnum

“Curry is a dish that doesn’t quite exist, but, as this wildly funny and sharp essay points out, a dish that doesn’t properly exist can have infinite, equally authentic variations. By grappling with novels, recipes, travelogues, pop culture, and his own upbringing, Naben Ruthnum depicts how the distinctive taste of curry has often become maladroit shorthand for brown identity. With the sardonic wit of Gita Mehta’s  Karma Cola  and the refined, obsessive palette of Bill Buford’s  Heat , Ruthnum sinks his teeth into the story of how the beloved flavor calcified into an aesthetic genre that limits the imaginations of writers, readers, and eaters.”

The River of Consciousness  by Oliver Sacks

“Sacks, an Oxford-educated polymath, had a deep familiarity not only with literature and medicine but with botany, animal anatomy, chemistry, the history of science, philosophy, and psychology.  The River of Consciousness  is one of two books Sacks was working on up to his death, and it reveals his ability to make unexpected connections, his sheer joy in knowledge, and his unceasing, timeless project to understand what makes us human.”

All the Women in My Family Sing: Women Write the World: Essays on Equality, Justice, and Freedom (Nothing But the Truth So Help Me God)  by Deborah Santana and America Ferrera

“ All the Women in My Family Sing  is an anthology documenting the experiences of women of color at the dawn of the twenty-first century. It is a vital collection of prose and poetry whose topics range from the pressures of being the vice-president of a Fortune 500 Company, to escaping the killing fields of Cambodia, to the struggles inside immigration, identity, romance, and self-worth. These brief, trenchant essays capture the aspirations and wisdom of women of color as they exercise autonomy, creativity, and dignity and build bridges to heal the brokenness in today’s turbulent world.”

We Wear the Mask: 15 True Stories of Passing in America  by Brando Skyhorse and Lisa Page

“For some, ‘passing’ means opportunity, access, or safety. Others don’t willingly pass but are ‘passed’ in specific situations by someone else.  We Wear the Mask , edited by  Brando Skyhorse  and  Lisa Page , is an illuminating and timely anthology that examines the complex reality of passing in America. Skyhorse, a Mexican American, writes about how his mother passed him as an American Indian before he learned who he really is. Page shares how her white mother didn’t tell friends about her black ex-husband or that her children were, in fact, biracial.”

Feel Free: Essays by Zadie Smith

“Since she burst spectacularly into view with her debut novel almost two decades ago, Zadie Smith has established herself not just as one of the world’s preeminent fiction writers, but also a brilliant and singular essayist. She contributes regularly to  The New Yorker  and the  New York Review of Books  on a range of subjects, and each piece of hers is a literary event in its own right.”

The Mother of All Questions: Further Reports from the Feminist Revolutions  by Rebecca Solnit

“In a timely follow-up to her national bestseller  Men Explain Things to Me , Rebecca Solnit offers indispensable commentary on women who refuse to be silenced, misogynistic violence, the fragile masculinity of the literary canon, the gender binary, the recent history of rape jokes, and much more. In characteristic style, Solnit mixes humor, keen analysis, and powerful insight in these essays.”

The Wrong Way to Save Your Life: Essays  by Megan Stielstra

“Whether she’s imagining the implications of open-carry laws on college campuses, recounting the story of going underwater on the mortgage of her first home, or revealing the unexpected pains and joys of marriage and motherhood, Stielstra’s work informs, impels, enlightens, and embraces us all. The result is something beautiful—this story, her courage, and, potentially, our own.”

Against Memoir: Complaints, Confessions & Criticisms  by Michelle Tea

“Delivered with her signature honesty and dark humor, this is Tea’s first-ever collection of journalistic writing. As she blurs the line between telling other people’s stories and her own, she turns an investigative eye to the genre that’s nurtured her entire career—memoir—and considers the price that art demands be paid from life.”

A Twenty Minute Silence Followed by Applause  by Shawn Wen

“In precise, jewel-like scenes and vignettes,  A Twenty Minute Silence Followed by Applause  pays homage to the singular genius of a mostly-forgotten art form. Drawing on interviews, archival research, and meticulously observed performances, Wen translates the gestural language of mime into a lyric written portrait by turns whimsical, melancholic, and haunting.”

Acid West: Essays  by Joshua Wheeler

“The radical evolution of American identity, from cowboys to drone warriors to space explorers, is a story rooted in southern New Mexico.  Acid West  illuminates this history, clawing at the bounds of genre to reveal a place that is, for better or worse, home. By turns intimate, absurd, and frightening,  Acid West  is an enlightening deep-dive into a prophetic desert at the bottom of America.”

Sexographies  by Gabriela Wiener and Lucy Greaves And jennifer adcock (Translators)

“In fierce and sumptuous first-person accounts, renowned Peruvian journalist Gabriela Wiener records infiltrating the most dangerous Peruvian prison, participating in sexual exchanges in swingers clubs, traveling the dark paths of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris in the company of transvestites and prostitutes, undergoing a complicated process of egg donation, and participating in a ritual of ayahuasca ingestion in the Amazon jungle—all while taking us on inward journeys that explore immigration, maternity, fear of death, ugliness, and threesomes. Fortunately, our eagle-eyed voyeur emerges from her narrative forays unscathed and ready to take on the kinks, obsessions, and messiness of our lives.  Sexographies  is an eye-opening, kamikaze journey across the contours of the human body and mind.”

The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative  by Florence Williams

“From forest trails in Korea, to islands in Finland, to eucalyptus groves in California, Florence Williams investigates the science behind nature’s positive effects on the brain. Delving into brand-new research, she uncovers the powers of the natural world to improve health, promote reflection and innovation, and strengthen our relationships. As our modern lives shift dramatically indoors, these ideas—and the answers they yield—are more urgent than ever.”

Can You Tolerate This?: Essays  by Ashleigh Young

“ Can You Tolerate This?  presents a vivid self-portrait of an introspective yet widely curious young woman, the colorful, isolated community in which she comes of age, and the uneasy tensions—between safety and risk, love and solitude, the catharsis of grief and the ecstasy of creation—that define our lives.”

What are your favorite contemporary essay collections?

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Home — Essay Samples — History — Contemporary History — 21St Century

Essays on 21st Century

Choosing 21st century essay topics.

As we navigate through the 21st century, the world around us is constantly evolving, and this evolution comes with a plethora of complex issues and topics that are ripe for exploration and discussion. When it comes to selecting an essay topic for your academic assignments, it's important to choose a subject that is not only relevant but also engaging and thought-provoking. In this article, we will delve into the importance of choosing a 21st-century essay topic, provide advice on how to select a topic, and offer a detailed list of recommended essay topics across various categories.

The Importance of the Topic

Choosing a relevant and impactful essay topic is crucial for several reasons. Firstly, it allows you to engage with current events and trends, fostering a deeper understanding of the world around us and its complexities. Secondly, a well-chosen topic can spark meaningful discussions and debates, both within academic circles and in society at large. Additionally, selecting a 21st-century essay topic can help you develop critical thinking and analytical skills, as you navigate through the complexities of contemporary issues.

Advice on Choosing a Topic

When it comes to selecting an essay topic, it's important to consider your interests, as well as the relevance and significance of the subject matter. Start by brainstorming a list of topics that intrigue you and align with your academic goals. Consider the potential impact of the topic and its relevance to modern society. Research the latest developments and debates surrounding the topic to ensure that you have access to current and credible sources. Lastly, make sure the topic is broad enough to provide you with ample research material, but also specific enough to allow for in-depth exploration.

Recommended Essay Topics

Social issues.

• The impact of social media on mental health
• Income inequality in the 21st century
• The rise of fake news and its implications
• The role of activism in contemporary society

Technology and Innovation

• The ethical implications of artificial intelligence
• The future of renewable energy sources
• Privacy and data protection in the digital age
• The impact of technology on the job market

Environmental Concerns

• The effects of climate change on global communities
• Sustainable practices for a greener future
• The role of activism in environmental conservation
• The intersection of environmentalism and social justice

Global Politics

• International responses to humanitarian crises
• Nationalism and its impact on global diplomacy
• The role of the United Nations in the 21st century
• The rise of populism and its implications for global governance

Cultural Identity

• The impact of globalization on cultural diversity
• The portrayal of gender and race in contemporary media
• The intersection of technology and cultural heritage
• The role of art and literature in shaping cultural identities

These are just a few examples of the myriad of topics that you can explore for your 21st-century essay. Remember to choose a topic that resonates with you and aligns with your academic interests. By delving into the complexities of contemporary issues, you can develop a deeper understanding of the world around us and contribute to meaningful discussions and debates.

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A Look at Racism in The 21st Century and Efforts to Stop It

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The beginning of the 21st century was the rise of a global warming, global economy and Third World consumerism, increased private enterprise and terrorist attacks. Many great and many bad things happened in the current century. Many natural and man-made disasters made their impact on the world.

In the 21st century the effects of social development have affected different countries and different social groups differently. Although social development upgraded life standards of population.

The main challenges in the 21st century are: climate change, plastic pollution in the oceans, natural hazards, air pollution, hunger and increased inequalities.

Technology in the 21st century has enabled to humans to make strides that our ancestors could only dream of. People in the 21st century live in a technology and media-suffused environment.

The world population was about 6.1 billion at the start of the 21st century and reached 7.8 billion by March 2020.

Economically and politically, the United States and Western Europe were dominant at the beginning of the century. By the 2010s, China became an emerging global superpower and the world's largest economy. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are increasing in popularity worldwide.

The 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers, Hurricane Katrina, Same-Sex Marriage Legalisation, Haiti Earthquake, The Arab Spring, Brexit

Relevant topics

• Jack The Ripper
• Roaring Twenties
• Green Revolution
• China Crisis
• 19Th Century
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• 20Th Century

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Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century

Doing Race focuses on race and ethnicity in everyday life: what they are, how they work, and why they matter. Going to school and work, renting an apartment or buying a house, watching television, voting, listening to music, reading books and newspapers, attending religious services, and going to the doctor are all everyday activities that are influenced by assumptions about who counts, whom to trust, whom to care about, whom to include, and why. Race and ethnicity are powerful precisely because they organize modern society and play a large role in fueling violence around the globe. Doing Race is targeted to undergraduates; it begins with an introductory essay and includes original essays by well-known scholars. Drawing on the latest science and scholarship, the collected essays emphasize that race and ethnicity are not things that people or groups have or are, but rather sets of actions that people do. Doing Race provides compelling evidence that we are not yet in a “post-race” world and that race and ethnicity matter for everyone. Since race and ethnicity are the products of human actions, we can do them differently. Like studying the human genome or the laws of economics, understanding race and ethnicity is a necessary part of a twenty first century education.

About the Author

PAULA M. L. MOYA, is the Danily C. and Laura Louise Bell Professor of the Humanities and Professor of English at Stanford University. She is the Burton J. and Deedee McMurtry University Fellow in Undergraduate Education and a 2019-20 Fellow at the Center for the Study of Behavioral Sciences.

Moya’s teaching and research focus on twentieth-century and early twenty-first century literary studies, feminist theory, critical theory, narrative theory, American cultural studies, interdisciplinary approaches to race and ethnicity, and Chicanx and U.S. Latinx studies.

She is the author of  The Social Imperative: Race, Close Reading, and Contemporary Literary Criticism  (Stanford UP 2016) and  Learning From Experience: Minority Identities, Multicultural Struggles  (UC Press 2002) and has co-edited three collections of original essays,  Doing Race: 21 Essays for the 21st Century  (W.W. Norton, Inc. 2010),  Identity Politics Reconsidered  (Palgrave 2006) and  Reclaiming Identity: Realist Theory and the Predicament of Postmodernism  (UC Press 2000). 

Previously Moya served as the Director of the Program of Modern Thought and Literature, Vice Chair of the Department of English, Director of the Research Institute of Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, and also the Director of the Undergraduate Program of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. 

She is a recipient of the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, a Ford Foundation postdoctoral fellowship, the Outstanding Chicana/o Faculty Member award. She has been a Brown Faculty Fellow, a Clayman Institute Fellow, a CCSRE Faculty Research Fellow, and a Clayman Beyond Bias Fellow. 

British Council

In our rapidly changing world what is the future of the English language?

By mina patel, assessment research manager, british council, 18 april 2023 - 16:54.

English is one of the most spoken languages in the world, but what will English look like in the future? Here Mina Patel, one of the authors of the new British Council publication ‘The Future of English: Global Perspectives’, looks at how English, its teaching, assessment and use in business will be affected in a rapidly changing world.

People ask: what’s so important about English? The answer is simple, English connects people and changes lives. English changed my life. I arrived in England at the age of four as a refugee from Uganda. I couldn’t speak a word of English. Today I am one of the authors of the British Council’s newest publication, The Future of English: Global Perspectives. I was lucky. I was inspired at school, had wonderful teachers, and they instilled in me a passion for learning and teaching. I have been in English language education for many years and English has connected me to thousands of people around the world. 

The Future of English: Global Perspectives is part of a long-term research programme, which identifies key trends that will define the role of English as a global language in the coming decade. It also examines the issues and opportunities for countries around the world in achieving their goals for the use of English. 

The publication describes the programme and presents the findings from discussions with 92 policy makers and influencers from 49 countries and territories during 14 roundtables, about what they see as the future of English. From these conversations, eight themes emerged, themes that we believe will have an impact on the future of English in the coming years. So, what are the global perspectives about the future of English and what does the data tell us?

Will English remain the world’s most sought-after language?

For the foreseeable future English will remain the dominant global lingua franca (a language used by people with different native languages to communicate with each other), but the role it plays in the lives of individuals or in policies will begin to change. 

Numbers of learners will remain stable or rise in the next ten years. The main drivers for this are education, employment, technology and global mobility. Employers, parents and learners themselves are driving the need for English language education. They see it as a necessity for success in life, learning and employment. 

What role will English play in our multilingual world?

Multilingualism is the norm in most contexts around the world. Exploration, colonialisation, migration, and globalisation have all contributed to today’s multilingual world. 

English is often one of the languages used in multilingual situations where everyday communication is managed by individuals using their full range of languages organically and fluidly – a practice known as ‘translanguaging’.

One implication for English is that it increasingly ‘belongs’ (in the sense that any language can belong to anybody) to whoever uses it, in whatever form, to interact successfully in any given context. 

What is the future of English as a medium of education?

English as a medium of education (EME), also called English as a medium of instruction is when students are taught subjects in English, regardless of their first language. It is hugely popular in some contexts and is driven by governments and parents that see it as a good way to achieve fluency in English, so improving the chances of students getting a good job in the future.  

Universities which teach courses in English - with lectures, course materials and tutorials all given in English - are now very common. Primary and secondary schools where English is the main language of teaching and learning are also becoming more popular.  However, EME is a topic of much discussion and debate.

How will teachers remain relevant in future English language learning systems?

Our data tells us that teachers are very much at the heart of the teaching and learning process and the education system. Regardless of the technological shifts during the Pandemic, teachers are very important. However, in some places in the world, there are concerns about capacity with two main questions being asked. Are there enough English teachers and are there enough skilled English teachers?

Linked to this is teacher motivation and well-being. If English is considered a valuable and important skill for a nation’s educational, professional and economic success, then it follows that English language teachers should be looked after, supported, developed and rewarded to reflect the significance of their contribution to society. 

Public and private English language provision - who has the answers?

This is an interesting question, and although private language education provision can be better, our participants were concerned about the lack of monitoring and evaluation of private language provision.  

That said, public-sector provision of English language teaching is inadequate in many countries, often featuring inappropriate or outdated curricula.

It is likely that the answers to better quality provision in both sectors lie in greater cross-sector communication and collaboration.

Can English language assessment meet stakeholders’ changing needs?

People require different types of proficiency for different tasks in different contexts. This has implications for teaching, learning and assessment (TLA), particularly as we expect that aligning these components will continue to be of interest in the future.

English is no longer seen in isolation. Instead, it is seen as part of a range of knowledge, skills and expertise, captured by the concept of 21st-century skills and required for a dynamic globalised world. This presents two challenges for current assessment practices:

• Assessment needs to be more creative and innovative to develop and measure individuals more holistically.

• Language Assessment Literacy (LAL) needs to be considered more seriously and concepts of LAL need to adapt to be relevant in this changing assessment landscape.

Can technology narrow the equity gap in English language education?

While there are significant advantages to using technology to aid learning, both in and outside the classroom, these advantages have not always been built upon. This is because uptake and success depend on several factors:

• Access to hardware, such as TV, radio, computers, smartphones and the Internet.

• Teacher skills and motivation to support learning.

• Stakeholder support (within the education system and at home).

• Inclusion in modern curricula of recognition of informal learning (typically online).

The reality is that in many cases there are significant disparities in access across communities. This ‘digital divide’ can have social, educational and economic repercussions for those affected.

It is important to note that in many developing or rural places, technology doesn’t just mean mobile devices, it also means televisions and radios.

To what extent is employment driving the future of English?

The world of work has changed. Globalisation, together with advances in technology, has changed the way many companies operate and the skills required by employees. Previously technical skills in specific areas were highly sought after, now employers are looking for ‘all-round’ employees who can combine technical expertise with additional skills, including teamworking, problem-solving, negotiation, intercultural awareness and digital literacy. 

Multilingual and multicultural workforces are not uncommon, whether people are working remotely or in the same location. English is often the lingua franca and sometimes the official language of business as chosen by organisations. The very concept of international, dispersed teams changes and expands the parameters of English for work. 

English is becoming a requirement for all sectors of industry. At all levels in organisations and all over the world, English at work is no longer only for professional jobs or senior management roles – it has increasingly become necessary for lower-skilled jobs in the tourism and retail sectors. As cited in a previous British Council study, ‘even if English is one of the working languages in a major multinational company, the English proficiency requirement differs from role to role’ 

All these factors have led to the notion of proficiency, as we know it, being re-defined.

As the data shows, the future of English is interesting, dynamic and contextual but there are still many questions. The future of English programme is an invitation for colleagues and partners to collaborate to try and answer some of these questions.  We’re living in exciting times, change is the norm, but for the foreseeable future, English will continue to connect people and change lives. 

Find out more about our Future of English programme and download a free copy of the book Future of English: Global Perspectives.

You might also be interested in:.

• Ten statements about the Future of ELT - the hidden messages from the ELTons finalists
• The British and their secret language regrets
• How to help your students speak with clarity

View the discussion thread.

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Deeper Learning: Defining Twenty-First Century Literacy

Only a decade and a few years in, how can we fully describe the twenty-first century learner? So far, this we do know: She is a problem solver, critical thinker, and an effective collaborator and communicator. We also know that a deeper learning environment is required in order to nurture and grow such a learner.

Watch a high school student talk about developing 21st-century skills through deeper learning.

How about that last characteristic of a 21st-century learner, effective communicator? Being literate means one who is advanced at reading, writing, speaking, and listening. And, in all schools -- deeper learning driven or not -- literacy is a curriculum fundamental. Its importance President Obama explained in a speech a few years back:

In today's world, being literate requires much, much more than the traditional literacy of yesterday. According to the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English), twenty-first century readers and writers need to:

• Gain proficiency with tools of technology
• Develop relationships with others and confront and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
• Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments

In the Classroom

When it comes to effective communicator, we can no longer consider college and career ready as simply sending students out as good readers and writers. As the definition of literacy evolves in our world, so does the charge of schools in helping students work towards and gain mastery of the skills and abilities NCTE has outlined above. Let's take a look at some of those:

Gain proficiency with tools of technology. The greatest tech tool of all? The Internet. It undoubtedly gives access to an unending wealth of information and has revolutionized our lives. I remember years ago trying to fix my lawnmower. I went to three public libraries trying to find a lawnmower manual that was close enough to my machine to be useful. Now? Go to YouTube and someone will take you step-by-step through repairing or making just about anything and everything.

But for all the amazing, valuable stuff on the Web, there's loads of misinformation, half-truths, and misquoted, useless stuff. In preparing children to be literate in today's world, it's urgent that we teach the skill of scoping websites with a critical eye. Kids need to be explicitly trained in spotting everything from blatant pseudo-facts to slightly questionable content. This ability to "filter" will be required of them in both university and work.

Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts and manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information. The term multimedia, which means using more than one medium of expression or creation to communicate, encompasses a great deal more than it did 10, or even five years ago. To convey their deeper learning of a new concept, I remember having students include with their written analysis a printed graph, chart or image, and later, I required they add some audio or video element or links from websites. Now, students are creating websites as the task itself. A flat, inanimate thing like a written report or essay -- or a book or newspaper, for that matter -- is no longer the paradigm of communication.

Communication today is like a living thing, morphing continuously -- a hybrid of script, interactive, audio, and moving images. What does this mean for teachers and students? Schools need to be preparing students to masterfully navigate, judge, and create this type of sophisticated communication -- and do so quickly and efficiently.

What's Next?

It's true that, through deeper learning, many teachers and schools are already guiding students into this new century well-equipped to think critically on their feet, problem solve, and communicate effectively. But as we enter our thirteenth year, we need to stay mindful that the definition for 21st century learner -- and literacy -- will continue to change.

How Do You Define 21st-Century Learning?

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The term “21st-century skills” is generally used to refer to certain core competencies such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving that advocates believe schools need to teach to help students thrive in today’s world. In a broader sense, however, the idea of what learning in the 21st century should look like is open to interpretation—and controversy.

To get a sense of how views on the subject align—and differ—we recently asked a range of education experts to define 21st-century learning from their own perspectives.

Richard Allington Professor of Education, University of Tennessee; Early-Reading Expert

I’m an old guy. I’ve never Tweeted, Skyped, Facebooked, or YouTubed. Oddly, I don’t feel the least bit disenfranchised by technology. I am preparing this response on my laptop, I use (though not much) my Blackberry every day, and I will e-mail this response. But I’m still stuck on fostering 18th-century literacy in citizens. As far as I can tell, illiterates rarely use 21st-century literacies if only because they never developed the 18th-century kind of literacy. I think we actually could teach everyone to read (the old way) and for the life of me I cannot understand why schools would spend funds on computers when their libraries are almost empty of things students might want to read. I cannot understand why classrooms have whiteboards but no classroom libraries. The research, to date, has provided no evidence that having either computers or whiteboards in schools has any positive effect on students’ reading and writing proficiencies. But school and classroom libraries are well established as essential if we plan to develop a literate citizenry. However, there is no buzz about books.

Barnett Berry Founder and CEO, Center for Teaching Quality

Twenty-first-century learning means that students master content while producing, synthesizing, and evaluating information from a wide variety of subjects and sources with an understanding of and respect for diverse cultures. Students demonstrate the three Rs, but also the three Cs: creativity, communication, and collaboration. They demonstrate digital literacy as well as civic responsibility. Virtual tools and open-source software create borderless learning territories for students of all ages, anytime and anywhere.

Powerful learning of this nature demands well-prepared teachers who draw on advances in cognitive science and are strategically organized in teams, in and out of cyberspace. Many will emerge as teacherpreneurs who work closely with students in their local communities while also serving as learning concierges, virtual network guides, gaming experts, community organizers, and policy researchers.

Sarah Brown Wessling 2010 National Teacher of the Year

Twenty-first-century learning embodies an approach to teaching that marries content to skill. Without skills, students are left to memorize facts, recall details for worksheets, and relegate their educational experience to passivity. Without content, students may engage in problem-solving or team-working experiences that fall into triviality, into relevance without rigor. Instead, the 21st-century learning paradigm offers an opportunity to synergize the margins of the content vs. skills debate and bring it into a framework that dispels these dichotomies. Twenty-first-century learning means hearkening to cornerstones of the past to help us navigate our future. Embracing a 21st-century learning model requires consideration of those elements that could comprise such a shift: creating learners who take intellectual risks, fostering learning dispositions, and nurturing school communities where everyone is a learner.

Karen Cator Director, Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education

Success in the 21st century requires knowing how to learn. Students today will likely have several careers in their lifetime. They must develop strong critical thinking and interpersonal communication skills in order to be successful in an increasingly fluid, interconnected, and complex world. Technology allows for 24/7 access to information, constant social interaction, and easily created and shared digital content. In this setting, educators can leverage technology to create an engaging and personalized environment to meet the emerging educational needs of this generation. No longer does learning have to be one-size-fits-all or confined to the classroom. The opportunities afforded by technology should be used to re-imagine 21st-century education, focusing on preparing students to be learners for life.

Milton Chen Senior Fellow & Executive Director, Emeritus, The George Lucas Educational Foundation; author of Education Nation: Six Leading Edges of Innovation in Our Schools

Twenty-first-century learning shouldn’t be controversial. It is simply an effort to define modern learning using modern tools. (The problem is that what’s modern in 2010 has accelerated far beyond 2000, a year which now seems “so last century.”)

Twenty-first-century learning builds upon such past conceptions of learning as “core knowledge in subject areas” and recasts them for today’s world, where a global perspective and collaboration skills are critical. It’s no longer enough to “know things.” It’s even more important to stay curious about finding out things.

The Internet, which has enabled instant global communication and access to information, likewise holds the key to enacting a new educational system, where students use information at their fingertips and work in teams to accomplish more than what one individual can alone, mirroring the 21st-century workplace. If 10 years from now we are still debating 21st-century learning, it would be a clear sign that a permanent myopia has clouded what should be 20/20 vision.

Steven Farr Chief Knowledge Officer, Teach For America; author of Teaching as Leadership: The Highly Effective Teacher’s Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap

Twenty-first-century learning must include the 20th-century ideals of Brown v. Board of Education . Sadly, we have failed to deliver on that promise. Our system perpetuates a racial and socioeconomic achievement gap that undermines our ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity.

As we study what distinguishes highly effective teachers in our nation’s most challenging contexts, we see that education reform requires much more than lists of skills. We need classroom leaders setting an ambitious vision, rallying others to work hard to achieve it, planning and executing to ensure student learning, and defining the very notion of teaching as changing the life paths of students. What will make America a global leader in the 21st century is acting on what we know to educate all children, regardless of socioeconomic background.

Steve Hargadon Founder, Classroom 2.0; Social Learning Consultant, Elluminate

Twenty-first-century learning will ultimately be “learner-driven.” Our old stories of education (factory-model, top-down, compliance-driven) are breaking down or broken, and this is because the Internet is releasing intellectual energy that comes from our latent desires as human beings to have a voice, to create, and to participate. The knowledge-based results look a lot like free-market economies or democratic governments (think: Wikipedia ). Loosely governed and highly self-directed, these teaching and learning activities exist beyond the sanction or control of formal educational institutions. I believe the political and institutional responses will be to continue to promote stories about education that are highly-structured and defined from above, like national standards or (ironically) the teaching of 21st-century skills. These will, however, seem increasingly out-of-sync not just with parents, educators, and administrators watching the Internet Revolution, but with students, who themselves are largely prepared to drive their own educations.

Lynne Munson President and Executive Director, Common Core

I define 21st-century learning as 20th- (or even 19th!-) century learning but with better tools. Today’s students are fortunate to have powerful learning tools at their disposal that allow them to locate, acquire, and even create knowledge much more quickly than their predecessors. But being able to Google is no substitute for true understanding. Students still need to know and deeply understand the history that brought them and our nation to where we are today. They need to be able to enjoy man’s greatest artistic and scientific achievements and to speak a language besides their mother tongue. According to most 21st-century skills’ advocates, students needn’t actually walk around with such knowledge in their heads, they need only to have the skills to find it. I disagree. Twenty-first-century technology should be seen as an opportunity to acquire more knowledge, not an excuse to know less.

Keith Moore Director, Bureau of Indian Education, Department of Interior

Students in the 21st century learn in a global classroom and it’s not necessarily within four walls. They are more inclined to find information by accessing the Internet through cellphones and computers, or chatting with friends on a social networking site. Similarly, many teachers are monitoring and issuing assignments via virtual classrooms.

Many of our Bureau of Indian Education schools are located in disadvantaged rural and remote areas. The BIE is working with various stakeholders to ensure that our schools have a Common Operating Environment so that students and teachers can access information beyond the classroom.

Within the federal BIE school system, we must rely upon the vision and the ability of our tribal leadership, parents, teachers, and students to work with the federal leadership to keep education a top priority.

Diane Ravitch Education Historian; author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System

To be prepared for the 21st century, our children require the following skills and knowledge: an understanding of history, civics, geography, mathematics, and science, so they may comprehend unforeseen events and act wisely; the ability to speak, write, and read English well; mastery of a foreign language; engagement in the arts, to enrich their lives; close encounters with great literature, to gain insight into timeless dilemmas and the human condition; a love of learning, so they continue to develop their minds when their formal schooling ends; self-discipline, to pursue their goals to completion; ethical and moral character; the social skills to collaborate fruitfully with others; the ability to use technology wisely; the ability to make and repair useful objects, for personal independence; and the ability to play a musical instrument, for personal satisfaction.

Susan Rundell Singer Laurence McKinley Gould Professor of Natural Sciences, Carleton College

Adaptability, complex communication skills, non-routine problem solving, self-management, and systems-thinking are essential skills in the 21st-century workforce. From my perspective as a scientist and science educator, the most effective way to prepare students for the workforce and college is to implement and scale what is already known about effective learning and teaching. Content vs. process wars should be ancient history, based on the evidence from the learning sciences. Integrating core concepts with key skills will prepare students for the workplace and college. We need to move past mile-wide and inch-deep coverage of ever-expanding content in the classroom. Developing skills in the context of core concepts is simply good practice. It’s time to let go of polarizing debates, consider the evidence, and get to work.

A version of this article appeared in the October 12, 2010 edition of Teacher PD Sourcebook as How Do You Define 21st-Century Learning?

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Learn 21st century skills in english.

Technology is changing our world. Routine knowledge and skills are being automated, digitised and outsourced.

Universities, governments and businesses from around the world have worked together to understand the skills that children will need to succeed in the 21st century .

Collaboration

Learning how to work effectively and respectfully with other people is an important life skill. Collaborative activities are also excellent for English language learners because they encourage speaking and listening skills.

Learning tip Put books, chairs and other objects in places where people might bump into them. Choose one family member to walk through the obstacle course while blindfolded.

Ask another family member to guide them through the obstacle course, by saying directions in English (e.g. left, right, stop, take one step back).

Responsibility

Responsibility is about encouraging children to make a difference to the world in which they live. Children learn that they can inspire and motivate others when they lead by example.

Learning tip Ask your child to be responsible for teaching another family member some English. For example, this might involve teaching them three new English words a day and testing them at the end of each week.

This is a great activity for language learners. Teaching someone else is one of the best ways to learn.

Critical thinking

Critical thinking is about having logical reasons and evidence for your conclusions. It is an important skill in academic subjects and for everyday decision-making.

Learning tip for 5–12 year olds Look at some pictures together. For example, here’s a picture called At the doctor’s. Try using a mixture of closed questions, which assess quick facts (e.g. Where is the doctor?), and open questions, which assess reasoning (e.g. Why do you think the doctor is looking surprised?).

Learning tip for 13–18 year olds Encourage your child to read texts with different people’s opinions, such as newspaper or magazine articles. Ask your child to question what they read. What are the facts? What are the opinions? Does the author give any evidence to support their opinions?

We often focus on analytical, logical thinking. However, imaginative and creative thinking – the process of playing with ideas and being open to new possibilities – has been just as important in the history of human development and achievement.

Learning tip Ask your child to design their dream home, car, clothes or toy and label some of the parts.

Problem-solving

We all face problems every day at school, at work and at home. To solve problems, we need to think in both analytical and creative ways. We also need to develop resilience – the ability to handle a challenge, deal with pressure and persist until a problem is resolved.

Learning tip Find a funny short story. Cut it up and ask your child to use sticky tape to stick it back together again. You can make it more difficult by having a couple of cards that don’t match so the task isn’t completed by luck towards the end.

Initiative and self-direction

Self-direction is about having the motivation to achieve and the discipline to complete tasks to a deadline. Research has found that initiative is even more important for academic success than intelligence.

Learning tip Let your child take part in choosing what to do. For example, choose English books together at the library. This will help with motivation, as they can pick topics/characters they are interested in.

ICT and information literacy

Children today have access to so many different technologies and so much information. It’s important to teach them how to make the most of it.

Learning tip Check out our digital learning tips in our article: Practising English using digital technology .

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Essay on “India in 21 Century” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

India in 21 Century

4 Best Essays on “India in 21st Century” 

Essay No. 01

The twentieth century is about to come to its end. We are making preparations for the 21 st century which is expected to come after one year. Now it is the right time to think what will be the position of India in the 21 st century.

We presume that India will surely occupy an important position in the world in the new century. The world will recognize her as the leader or torch-bearer of Asia.

Every country in the world will try to have friendly relations with India. She will have good relations with our neighbouring countries.  Indo- Pak relations will improve and there will be free trade and communication between these two countries. India and China will succeed in settling their border disputes in the coming century and both will have very good relations with each other. The new century will see India and Sri Lanka as good friends. In the same way, India’s relation with Nepal, Bhutan, and Burma will improve considerably.

In the economic field, the country will make great progress, in the 21 st century. The standard of living of all persons will rise. India will become a big exporting country in the coming century. She will not stand in the need of taking loans from the world bank. The country will be able to put a check upon the rising prices of all necessary commodities. The country will make great progress in industry and agriculture will be modernized.

In the scientific field, India will become the most advanced country in Asia. In making inventions she will leave Japan behind. She will not stand in the need of borrowing technology from any country of the world. She will make wonderful progress in space technology. she will launch more rockets in the 21 st century from her own launch complex.

She will also make great progress in the cultural field. She will patronize her national culture in music, dancing, painting, and sculpture. The artists of the country will win a great name in the international exhibitions of art.

In the 21 st century, India will be in the front in the educational field. She will overhaul her present system of education. Technical and vocational training will become an integral part of the education of the youth of the country. There will be no educated unemployment in India in the coming century. This will be possible on account of the change in her educational policy. The county will be free from illiteracy.

In the social field, India will get rid of many social customs in the 21 st century. The Dowry system will be put to an end. There will no trouble for our women. Nobody will pour kerosene oil on her body to put an end to her life.  

Essay No. 02

India in the twenty-first century

According to the Hindu Calendar and Vikram Samvat, we are already in the middle of the twenty-first century. But according to Christian Era, the twenty-first century is a decade away. Time is eternal and a ceaseless flow that does not admit any break or division. It is for our convenience that we have divided time into periods like years, decades, centuries, etc. It is not easy to imagine what would be the shape of things and life to come in the next century. However, it is exciting to think about India which would be after a couple of decades. We may just guess from what has already happened and from what is happening about things to come at the turn of the century. It is a kind of speculation to guess what would be there in India after the present century.

To imagine the coming century we have to see what has happened in the present century during the past three-four decades. In these years many fundamental changes have taken place as a result of rapid and radical advancement in the field of science and technology. We have harnessed atomic energy, space and time have been conquered to some extent. With the help of supersonic aeroplanes, the barrier of sound has been crossed, and now we can travel at tremendous speed. The increasing use of computers has revolutionized our life. In the field of entertainment television and audio systems have transformed life completely. Man has landed on the moon and space labs have become a reality. People have become better aware as regards family planning and welfare, and are accepting the norm of small families. Many of the diseases, previously regarded as fatal, have now been controlled and eradicated. But diseases like cancer and AIDS have posed a new challenge.

In the coming century life in India would become more automatic, mechanical and computerized. Man will become more materialistic, comfort-loving and dependent upon machines. Many things would be computer-controlled. Students in India would depend on computers even for simple arithmetic problems. Housewives will have more leisure and spare time because of the computerization of the home and the hearth. The twenty-first century would be virtually a century of computers in India as well as in other countries.

There would be greater industrial and technological development in India in the coming century. As a result, there would be more and more luxury items and consumer durables. There would be no shortage of consumer goods and food items. The farm technology would be further improved and food production would increase in spite of the increase in the population. In the next century

India’s population may surpass that of China. There would be marked improvement in the living standards of the people in general. They would become comparatively better off than they are at present. India is deeply religious. There are many faiths and religions in India. It is a secular country. India would remain secular in the spirit in the next century but the faith of the majority community would prevail over others. As a result of this, the bonds of nationalism and patriotism would be further strengthened. The problems of casteism, regionalism, and communalism would be solved giving rise to better discipline and progress. India would emerge as a world power in terms of economy, industry and military strength. In politics there exist at all. The public would be far more politically and. parties would not be only national parties and regional socially enlightened. The masses would exercise their right to vote with great care and would favor only those parties and candidates who do not indulge in corrupt and undesirable practices. The irresponsible form of politics would have no place at all. Then there would be greater awareness among the people about our rich and ancient culture and heritage. People would be proud of being Indians in the real sense of the term and pseudo-patriots would be exposed and suitably punished. There would be more cohesiveness, unity and integrity than now in the coming century. There would prevail one uniform civil code for all classes and communities.

In the field of education, much of the system would be computerized. Distance education would become more popular, and there would be hardly any illiteracy. The T.V. shall play a more important and bigger role in the spread of education. By means of the latest electronic devices, education will reach the door-steps of most people. People will not be required to reach distant universities and institutions of learning. The medium of instruction would be Hindi or the mother tongue of a student at the school level. English, would remain but would lose much of its present importance. The percentage of failure would be reduced to a great extent and education would be more realistic and work and job-oriented. Because of the increase in general awareness among the people and better economic conditions, exploitation, particularly of weaker sections like women, children, village folk, etc., would decrease to a great extent. The caste barriers would be further removed and there would\ be frequent inter-caste and inter-community marriages. Sex education in schools and colleges would become a routine and an accepted thing. There would be more accepting of free sex, and liberal views would prevail in the matters of marriage, sex, love, and family life. But with the increase in automation, industrialization, and materialism, bonds of the family would be further loosened. The population of the senior citizens and the aged people would increase tremendously. It would create many new problems. The environs of the big cities like Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay, Bangalore, Madras, etc., would be so polluted that people would have to wear oxygen masks regularly. To solve the crisis of energy, we will have to depend more and more on solar and atomic energy. The conventional sources of energy would be more or less exhausted. Space travel would become common as air travel is today among rich people. Recycling waste products would become a necessity in India of the next century.

There are thousands of things that cannot be visualized at this point in time. Only the coming decades would show the exact shape of things to come. We can just make arguments in broad terms, on the basis of present scientific, technological, social and political developments, about the condition that would prevail in India after 20, 30 or more years.

Essay No. 03

India in The 21st Century

We have stepped into a new century. Talking about the future is always exciting. Man wants to peep into the future to find out what is in store for him and his fellow beings. Man’s curiosity to know about the future and the shape of things and events to come has given rise to such subjects as astronomy, astrology, and palmistry, etc., which try to predict the events to come.

Now, what would be the future of India in the coming years of this century. Can we project and predict the future of India as a nation with some certainty and precision? Are we in a position to predict the conditions that are likely to prevail in future? How would the country look like, say after a decade? These are really very crucial questions. Should we expect a brave new world, full of peace, prosperity, hope, dynamism and health or a world congested, overpopulated, and full of despair, selfishness, polluted and dominated by narrow, parochial and self-seeking politicians? Perhaps, we cannot answer these questions with the desired precision, accuracy and exactness. However, the subject is really thrilling, exciting and interesting. There is no harm in making a guess about the shape of events and things in the coming years.

Our late Prime Minister, Mr Rajiv Gandhi. often talked of taking India into the 21st century. He was very optimistic and enthusiastic about the future of India and his faith and optimism were quite well-founded. But, unfortunately, he was not destined to lead the country into the new century. He wanted to shape the destiny of India but did not know about his own tragic and untimely end. It sounds ironical, but in no way does it lessen his faith, hope, optimism and dynamism about the future of the country. Physically he is no more with us but his ideals, optimism, faith, enthusiasm and dynamism are with us. He symbolised the country’s youth and bright future and continues to live in the form of young men and women • of India. What is important is the spirit and it never dies.

Judging from the winds of change sweeping across, a fair and some sure future image of the country can easily be formed. In order to imagine the future image of the country, it is essential that we review the major trends, events and happenings in the past few decades, because future projections cannot be made correctly by ignoring present events and past happenings. The past, the present and the future present a logical time-sequence. They are like links of the same chain.

As a result of rapid and radical advancement in the fields of science, technology, medicine, and agriculture, many changes of far-reaching significance have taken place during the last two to three decades. Atomic energy has been harnessed and space and time have been conquered to some extent. With the help of supersonic aeroplanes, the barrier of sound has been crossed, and now we can travel at tremendous speeds. People and countries have come closer in terms of time and distance and the world looks like one big country, marked by pleasant diversities. Man has landed on the moon, and space laboratories have become a reality. The ominous clouds of the Cold War, threatening world peace and harmony, have receded. The wide use of computers and super-computers has revolutionised our life. In the field of entertainment, television and audio systems have transformed life completely. People have become better aware of issues like family planning, child and woman-welfare and have begun to accept the norm of a small, planned family. General awareness about ecology and the environment is also on the increase. Many diseases, previously regarded as fatal, have now been controlled and eradicated, but diseases like cancer and AIDS have raised their ugly and deadly heads. On the basis of these developments, we look forward to a promising new era, with occasional gloom and despair.

In the coming years and decades, life in India will certainly be more convenient, comfortable and easy but real happiness and contentment will be more scarce. With the increased use of modern gadgets and devices, working, learning, communication and transportation will become easier, quicker, more comprehensive, and less time-consuming. Man will become more and more materialistic, comfort-loving and competitive. Religion will be further pushed into the background and many of the present-day superstitions will be eliminated. People will have more leisure and spare time and so traveling and sightseeing will become more popular. The coming years will bring greater industrial, economical, scientific and technological developments and India will be one of the leading lights in these areas. Consumerism will have rapid growth and there will be many more new luxury items and consumer durables.

Many items, which are now considered a luxury, will not be so then as they will become ordinary things of daily domestic use. Farm technology will be further improved and food production will increase. Consequently, there will be no shortage of food items, edible oils, vegetables and dairy products. Thus, there will be a marked improvement in the living standards of the people in general. They will be comparatively better off than they are at present. Many of the present towns will change into big cities and centres of trade and business.

As far as our population is concerned, it will perhaps surpass that of China in the coming years. At present, our population is over one billion, approximately one-sixth of the world population. Consequently, there will be pressure on our land, water and power resources. Housing and shelter will remain a serious problem. By the year 2020, metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai will become huge urban excrescence as a major portion of each of them will be covered by jhuggis and slums for want of adequate housing facilities. A few decades hence, India will emerge as a more powerful, strong, united and leading nation and, as such, will play a far more deciding and vital role in international affairs, especially in those of the U.N. and other world bodies. In the coming decades, secularism will prevail and people will become more tolerant, appreciative and broad-minded to one another’s religious faiths and way of living. In the matter of marriage, sex and love, there will be an increased liberal outlook and the gap between the two sexes will be further bridged. There will be more frequent cases of separation and divorce. The size of the family will be further reduced and the number of the old and the aged will rise rapidly. In the same proportion, the population of the children will decrease.

Secularism apart, India will remain religious at heart but much of religious observations and formalities will be causalities. The faith of the people will lead to further strengthening of the bonds of nationalism, national integration and unity. The problems of casteism, regionalism and communalism will be solved to a great extent, giving rise to better discipline, progress and a sense of patriotism. Gradually, the regional parties will be erased from the political scene of the country. The public will be more enlightened and aware about their-political and social lights and duties and will exercise far more diligence in the exercise of their votes. People will be proud of being Indians in the real sense of the term and pseudo-patriots along with political gurus, will be exposed. In the coming decades, there will be more cohesiveness, uniformity, unity and integrity than now. The country may even have one civil code for all classes and communities in respect of marriage, etc.

These are some of the broad and rough outlines of the future. On the basis of scientific, technological, social, political and world developments that have taken place in the past, we can only guess. Finer details about what may happen can be left for the future. The 21st century in itself is a very big period and the changes that will take place during these long years will be far more radical, fast, astonishing and unpredictable than those of the last century. Thus, only the coming decades will show the exact shape of things and events to come. There are thousands of things and possibilities which cannot be visualized at this point of time. One thing is certain. The future of our country is bright, hopeful, assuring and such as would inspire confidence, faith and optimism. But we must exert our best to make it doubly sure. Let us resolve to march ahead into the 21st century with confidence, fortitude, hope, courage and determination to face the new challenges of the new century. India as a nation has vast human and material resources at its command to scale new heights and establish new records in space technology, computer science, exploitation of non-conventional energy, the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes, genetic engineering, bio-technology, micro-electronics and a host of other related fields of human activity.

Essay No. 04

It would be nice for us if we stopped daydreaming and expecting the India of the 21st Century to be very much better than what it is at the end of the 20th Century. The trend that is obviously visible in all walks of life is neither very encouraging nor very full of hope.

Now let us study threadbare the possibilities in most of the important spheres. Politically the 1998 government has completed its full term. Bus as expected the corrupt brand of policies is still visible. We may not expect a bright future till the corrupt brand of a politician be a finished product though it has toward it some extent.

More than that is not possible in less than ten years because the damage done in fifty years cannot be done away within a magical moment. The trend may be that the new politicians may learn some lessons from the fate of their unruly powerful predecessors and improve their brand. The young politicians may start from good beginnings realizing that, evil, corruption, nepotism cannot last for long, and this feeling will give them the jitters, and they may never indulge in the dirt of politics. Besides the politician, the electorate may also use its own thinking power for this, the trend has become obvious.

The electorate has become aware and alert regarding the misuse of power by the politician and they may never tolerate it in the future. Regarding the multi-party system that has surfaced in India, I suspect that by the first decade of the 21st Century only, this system may be thrown to the winds, and the viability of a multiparty system in India may be scrapped, and a distinct bi-party system may emerge. A multi-party system in a place like India is an experiment in futility, this fact will be soon realized, as the stock of our politicians is the ones to adapt and adjust.

Every individual politician wants his piece of cake and is least bothered for the country he has promised to serve. Since this is the situation on the ground, by the first decade of the 21st Century only, I personally feel that a clear bi-party system could emerge, after some experiments in the adventure of multi-party Governments.

The administration of the Government offices may also be functioning better by the early years of the next Century as the corrupt and anti-work lobby by then may have brought India’s administration to a grinding halt. With the new Government has taken the reins at the end of the 20th Century it may be the lessons of the past, help them to tone up the administration, and help it come out of the woods. The Government may become very efficient and fast and prompt as the sluggish working of previous administrations have got the public come to a point of breakdown and revolt. To uplift the mood of the depressed public, the Government may set for itself a new and strict code for conducting itself, and if this is done, India will be having a wonderful administration

In trade, the 21st Century will certainly see the growth of International trade, and there will also be ample encouragement for our local cottage industries. This will see a positive rise in Indian business and culture. With our national economy taking strides ahead, I can hope that the gap between the Haves and Have Nots in India will be reduced and we may see less poverty in the country.

Socially the 21st Century will be either more depressing than the 20th has been or, if the social attitudes take a somersault, we may once again become a socially homogeneous country. In the 20th Century, the onslaught of Western culture in our society has been well nigh complete, and heartbreaking. Our beautiful family has given way under pressures of western studies, our dresses have become vulgar, our choice of art has been shaped by western choices, in short, and I’d say the murder of Indian society has been complete. Regarding this aspect, the 21st Century has two possibilities, one is, further increase in Westernization in thought and action, in art and culture. The second chance is that realizing the drawbacks and the impact of Westernization, the 21st Century society may come back to our own original Indian social norms. These two chances are visible on the Indian social horizon let’s see what is in store.

The knowledge of Science and Technology will go up in leaps and bounds and I am sure we will not be very far behind any of the progressed countries. We may be the ones to teach the world how to use nuclear science for the benefit of mankind.

After having seen the 20th Century observing the total decline of moral values, the 21st Century may witness a rise or rather the comeback of morality in India. The vagaries of the lack of morality have made the Indians suffer so much, in every sphere that, in the 21st Century they may realize that lack of morality and character have been the real bane of India’s fortunes. If people really start thinking in this direction it could be that the 21st Century ushers in for India a period of high moral standards of individual characters. If this happens India would have learned its lessons of the 20th Century.

With a possible revival of morality and character among Indians, the 21st Century may bring for India its golden period of growth and development. If we scrutinize carefully the drawbacks of the 20th Century, all of the coil down to a basic lack of character. So, if this great quality comes back to us we surely have a century of successes ahead.

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The Significance and Impact of the 21st Amendment

This essay is about the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1933, which ended Prohibition by repealing the 18th Amendment. It explores the historical context of Prohibition, including its challenges and the rise of illegal activities. The essay also discusses the economic pressures of the Great Depression that contributed to the push for repeal. The significance of the 21st Amendment is highlighted, noting its unique ratification process and its impact on federal and state regulation of alcohol. The essay underscores the amendment’s role in restoring personal freedoms, boosting the economy, and demonstrating the Constitution’s ability to evolve.

How it works

The 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution, sanctioned on December 5, 1933, stands as a momentous legislative enactment signifying the cessation of Prohibition. This amendment occupies a distinct echelon in American historiography, not solely by virtue of its annulment of the 18th Amendment, which enshrined Prohibition, but also owing to its unique ratification process by state conventions rather than state legislatures. Comprehending the 21st Amendment necessitates delving into the societal, economic, and political milieu of the early 20th century, alongside its profound ramifications on American ethos.

Prohibition, instantiated by the 18th Amendment in 1920, epitomized a nationwide constitutional interdiction on the production, importation, conveyance, and commerce of alcoholic beverages. It garnered fervent advocacy from temperance movements positing alcohol as the harbinger of myriad societal maladies, encompassing criminality and domestic discord. Nonetheless, enforcing Prohibition proved a Herculean task. Far from obliterating alcohol consumption, Prohibition engendered a deluge of illicit activities, including bootlegging and the ascendancy of organized crime. Speakeasies, clandestine establishments peddling alcohol, proliferated, rendering the law increasingly unenforceable and precipitating widespread corruption and public disillusionment.

The economic exigencies of the Great Depression further catalyzed the clamor for Prohibition’s repeal. By the early 1930s, the United States grappled with dire economic tribulations, prompting contentions that legalizing alcohol would engender employment opportunities and yield imperative tax revenues. The federal administration, cognizant of the prospective economic dividends, commenced reassessing Prohibition. In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt pursued the presidency on a platform encompassing Prohibition’s repeal, a stance emblematic of the burgeoning appetite for change among the populace.

The 21st Amendment was proffered to Congress in February 1933 and expeditiously garnered acclaim. Its ratification was historic, not merely for its nullification of the 18th Amendment but also for signifying a seismic paradigm shift in federal policy. The verbiage of the amendment is unequivocal: the first section rescinds the 18th Amendment, the second endows states with the prerogative to regulate alcohol as they deem fit, and the third stipulates a timeline for ratification. By December 1933, the requisite three-fourths of states had ratified the amendment, heralding the official cessation of Prohibition.

The abrogation of Prohibition yielded immediate and far-reaching repercussions. The legal alcohol industry expeditiously rebounded, engendering employment opportunities and yielding substantial tax revenues for both federal and state governments. This fiscal windfall was especially salient amidst the economic vicissitudes of the Great Depression. Furthermore, Prohibition’s repeal denoted a seismic shift in American sociopolitical ethos. It portended a departure from moralistic legislation, heralding recognition that personal conduct, including alcohol consumption, was best regulated by individuals and states rather than a blanket federal mandate.

While the 21st Amendment terminated Prohibition at the federal echelon, it concurrently conferred authority upon states to oversee alcohol regulation within their precincts. This engendered a mosaic of regulatory frameworks nationwide, with certain states upholding stringent controls while others embraced more permissive policies. This decentralized approach to alcohol regulation endures, attesting to the amendment’s enduring impact on American federalism.

Moreover, the 21st Amendment established a template for how constitutional amendments could grapple with intricate societal quandaries. It evinced that amendments could be rescinded and underscored the malleability of the Constitution as a living document adaptable to contemporary exigencies. The modality of ratification via state conventions, rather than legislatures, accentuated the imperative of direct public involvement in momentous policy overhauls.

In summation, the 21st Amendment stands as a seminal bastion of American jurisprudence that brought to a close the nationwide experiment of Prohibition. It mirrored the evolving societal, economic, and political panorama of the early 20th century and bore profound and enduring ramifications for American ethos. By annulling the 18th Amendment, it reinstated personal liberties, galvanized the economy, and reaffirmed federalist principles of state autonomy. The 21st Amendment endures as a testament to the dynamic fabric of the U.S. Constitution and the nation’s capacity to glean wisdom from past transgressions.

It’s important to remember that this essay serves as a point of departure for further exploration and research. For more personalized guidance and to ensure compliance with academic standards, consider engaging professionals at EduBirdie.

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The Best Books of the Year (So Far)

The nonfiction and novels we can’t stop thinking about.

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By The New York Times Books Staff

• May 24, 2024

Fiction | Nonfiction

We’re almost halfway through 2024 and we at The Book Review have already written about hundreds of books. Some of those titles are good. Some are very good. And then there are the following.

We suspect that some (though certainly not all) will be top of mind when we publish our end-of-year, best-of lists. For more thoughts on what to read next, head to our book recommendation page .

James , by Percival Everett

In this reworking of the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Jim, the enslaved man who accompanies Huck down the Mississippi River, is the narrator, and he recounts the classic tale in a language that is his own, with surprising details that reveal a far more resourceful, cunning and powerful character than we knew.

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Good Material , by Dolly Alderton

Alderton’s novel, about a 35-year-old struggling to make sense of a breakup, delivers the most delightful aspects of romantic comedy — snappy dialogue, realistic relationship dynamics, funny meet-cutes and misunderstandings — and leaves behind clichéd gender roles and the traditional marriage plot.

Martyr! , by Kaveh Akbar

A young Iranian American aspiring poet and recovering addict grieves his parents’ deaths while fantasizing about his own in Akbar’s remarkable first novel, which, haunted by death, also teems with life — in the inventive beauty of its sentences, the vividness of its characters and the surprising twists of its plot.

The Hunter , by Tana French

For Tana French fans, every one of the thriller writer’s twisty, ingenious books is an event. This one, a sequel to “The Searcher,” once again sees the retired Chicago cop Cal Hooper, a perennial outsider in the Irish west-country hamlet of Ardnakelty, caught up in the crimes — seen and unseen — that eat at the seemingly picturesque village.

Wandering Stars , by Tommy Orange

This follow-up to Orange’s debut, “There There,” is part prequel and part sequel; it trails the young survivor of a 19th-century massacre of Native Americans, chronicling not just his harsh fate but those of his descendants. In its second half, the novel enters 21st-century Oakland, following the family in the aftermath of a shooting.

Headshot , by Rita Bullwinkel

Set at a women’s boxing tournament in Reno, Nev., this novel centers on eight contestants, and the fights — physical and emotional — they bring to the ring. As our critic wrote: This story’s impact “lasts a long time, like a sharp fist to your shoulder.”

Beautyland , by Marie-Helene Bertino

In 1970s Philadelphia, an alien girl sent to Earth before she’s born communicates with her fellow life-forms via fax as she helps gather intel about whether our planet is habitable. This funny-sad novel follows the girl and her single mother as they find the means to persevere.

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder , by Salman Rushdie

In his candid, plain-spoken and gripping new memoir, Rushdie recalls the attempted assassination he survived in 2022 during a presentation about keeping the world’s writers safe from harm. His attacker had piranhic energy. He also had a knife. Rushdie lost an eye, but he has slowly recovered thanks to the attentive care of doctors and the wife he celebrates here.

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis , by Jonathan Blitzer

This urgent and propulsive account of Latin American politics and immigration makes a persuasive case for a direct line from U.S. foreign policy in Central America to the current migrant crisis.

The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook , by Hampton Sides

By the time he made his third Pacific voyage, the British explorer James Cook had maybe begun to lose it a little. The scientific aims of his first two trips had shifted into something darker. According to our reviewer, the historian Hampton Sides “isn’t just interested in retelling an adventure tale. He also wants to present it from a 21st-century point of view. ‘The Wide Wide Sea’ fits neatly into a growing genre that includes David Grann’s ‘ The Wager ’ and Candice Millard’s ‘ River of the Gods ,’ in which famous expeditions, once told as swashbuckling stories of adventure, are recast within the tragic history of colonialism .”

The Rebel’s Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon , by Adam Shatz

This absorbing biography of the Black psychiatrist, writer and revolutionary Frantz Fanon highlights a side of him that’s often eclipsed by his image as a zealous partisan — that of the caring doctor, who ran a secret clinic for Algerian rebels.

Fi: A Memoir , by Alexandra Fuller

In her fifth memoir, Fuller describes the sudden death of her 21-year-old son. Devastating as this elegant and honest account may be — it’s certainly not for the faint of heart — it also leaves the reader with a sense of having known a lovely and lively young man.

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

John S. Jacobs was a fugitive, an abolitionist — and the brother of the canonical author Harriet Jacobs. Now, his own fierce autobiography has re-emerged .

Don DeLillo’s fascination with terrorism, cults and mass culture’s weirder turns has given his work a prophetic air. Here are his essential books .

Jenny Erpenbeck’s “ Kairos ,” a novel about a torrid love affair in the final years of East Germany, won the International Booker Prize , the renowned award for fiction translated into English.

Kevin Kwan, the author of “Crazy Rich Asians,” left Singapore’s opulent, status-obsessed, upper crust when he was 11. He’s still writing about it .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

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