Author Guide · Anthropology & Psychology
Books Written by
Ernest Becker was diagnosed with colon cancer in November 1972. The Denial of Death, his argument that the fear of dying drives most of what people do, came out the following year, and in December 1973 he spent a day in a hospital bed talking it through with the writer Sam Keen. He died on 6 March 1974, aged 49. About two months later the book won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. He had published eight books before it, in a career of about fourteen years spent moving between anthropology, psychiatry and philosophy, and losing jobs at Syracuse and Berkeley along the way. This guide covers his nine books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 9 key books · 1961–1975 · Updated October 2026
ClickTap a spine to jump to that book below.
Quick answer
Ernest Becker wrote nine books between 1961 and his death in 1974, one of them published after it. The best known is The Denial of Death (1973), which won the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction; Escape from Evil (1975) carries its argument into history and society, and The Birth and Death of Meaning (1962, revised 1971) lays the groundwork. Start with The Denial of Death. Below: what each of the other books is about, and which of the early ones are still worth finding.
Where to Start with Ernest Becker
If you want the book that made his name
→ The Denial of Death (1973) — the Pulitzer-winning argument about death and heroism.
If you want a shorter way in
→ The Lost Science of Man (1971) — his theory of human nature, revised in 1971.
If you want to know what follows from it
→ Escape from Evil (1975) — the posthumous book on evil, war and scapegoats.
If you want the early Becker on psychiatry
→ The Revolution in Psychiatry (1964).
9 Ernest Becker Books, in Order
Zen
His first book, based on the doctoral dissertation in cultural anthropology he completed at Syracuse University in 1960. It is a critical look at Zen Buddhism, which was then fashionable in the West, by a young anthropologist. It was poorly received, and the Ernest Becker Foundation now reads it mainly for the early ideas about transference that he developed later.
The Birth and Death of Meaning
Becker’s first attempt at a general account of the human condition, drawing on psychiatry and anthropology together, with an emphasis on how deep the apparently “theatrical” side of social life really goes. The first edition (1962) was subtitled for psychiatry and anthropology; he revised it extensively for a second edition in 1971, which the Foundation counts as the first of his three final books.
The Revolution in Psychiatry
Written while he was teaching anthropology in a department of psychiatry, the book sets out a theory of mental illness drawn from the transactional philosophy of John Dewey and focused on the individual. Becker also wanted it to give a rational basis for moral action.
Beyond Alienation
A proposal for a unified college curriculum, built on the claim that many problems of mental health are really problems of education. Becker argues that public education should help people see the limits of the habitual world view they were raised in, and so become freer citizens of a democracy.
The Structure of Evil
Written mostly in 1963–64 and revised in 1966, this traces the history of the “science of man” as a moral problem. Becker proposes a theory of alienation and argues for a single science of human beings that could also say how people ought to live.
Angel in Armor
A collection of shorter essays, lectures and reviews written between 1962 and 1968.
The Lost Science of Man
Two essays written once Becker had accepted that the unified moral and social science he hoped for would not be taken up in his lifetime. He goes back through the histories of academic sociology and anthropology to explain why the disciplines rejected that ambition.
The Denial of Death
Becker argues that human beings are the animal that knows it will die, and that most of what people do, from building a character to joining a cause, is a way of not looking at that fact. He calls these efforts “immortality projects” and heroism, and draws heavily on Kierkegaard and above all on the psychoanalyst Otto Rank. Published in 1973, it won the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction about two months after his death. It became the basis of terror management theory in social psychology; the 1997 printing has a foreword by Sam Keen, the 2023 fiftieth-anniversary edition one by Brian Greene.
Escape from Evil
The book Becker was working on when he died, completed from his manuscript and notes and published in 1975. It carries the argument of The Denial of Death from the individual to whole societies: if people cannot bear their own mortality, they find others to blame and sacrifice, which Becker sees behind scapegoating, war and genocide. Some chapters are finished, others are short and sketchy; Sam Keen called it his greatest achievement.
In What Order to Read Ernest Becker
Becker kept rewriting one large project, so the books do build on each other, but you do not need the early ones to follow the late ones. The Denial of Death stands on its own, and most readers never go further than it and Escape from Evil.
If you want the whole arc, read the late trilogy as he framed it: the revised The Birth and Death of Meaning (1971), then The Denial of Death (1973), then Escape from Evil (1975). The books from the 1960s are harder to find and are mostly for readers interested in how his ideas formed.
A reading path
1. The Denial of Death (1973)
2. Escape from Evil (1975)
3. The Birth and Death of Meaning (1962, revised 1971)
4. Angel in Armor (1969)
The years · 1924–1974
Quick facts about Ernest Becker
- Known for
- He argued that the fear of death is the hidden engine of human culture, an idea that won him a posthumous Pulitzer Prize and became the basis of terror management theory.
- 1924
- Born in Springfield, Massachusetts
- 1974
- Dies 6 March; Pulitzer two months later
- Born
- 27 September 1924, Springfield, Massachusetts, to Jewish immigrant parents
- Died
- 6 March 1974, Burnaby, British Columbia, of colon cancer, aged 49
- War service
- Infantry in the Second World War; helped liberate a Nazi concentration camp
- Education
- Syracuse University; PhD in cultural anthropology, 1960
- Taught
- Syracuse, UC Berkeley, San Francisco State, then Simon Fraser University from 1969
- Prize
- Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, 1974, for The Denial of Death
The red mark is 1973: The Denial of Death, published the year after his cancer diagnosis.
How Ernest Becker Writes: One Argument, Built from Everyone
Becker was trained as a cultural anthropologist, but his method in the books is synthesis: he took Freud, Kierkegaard, Wilhelm Reich, Norman O. Brown, Erich Fromm and above all Otto Rank, and tried to fit them into one account of what drives human beings. The Denial of Death is openly built that way, with long passages from other thinkers and his own argument running between them.
He writes as an advocate, not a neutral surveyor, and returns to the same few ideas, “character armour”, “heroism”, “causa sui”, from new directions until they bear weight. Critics have found him reductive about mental illness for the same reason: everything is made to lead back to death.
The other constant is that he thought of his work as one project. His 1960s books argue for a single science of man that could also guide how to live; the late books keep that ambition and put mortality at its centre. Readers who come to him from Kierkegaard will find the Danish philosopher everywhere in it; see the books of Søren Kierkegaard.
Listen
Ernest Becker in Conversation with Sam Keen (1973)
Sam Keen talks with Ernest Becker in December 1973, shortly before Becker’s death. From the archive of the Ernest Becker Foundation.
Frequently asked questions about Ernest Becker’s books
How many books has Ernest Becker written?
Nine, published between 1961 and 1975: eight in his lifetime and Escape from Evil, which came out the year after he died. The Birth and Death of Meaning also exists in two versions, the first edition of 1962 and an extensively revised second edition of 1971.
What are Ernest Becker’s books in order?
Zen: A Rational Critique (1961), The Birth and Death of Meaning (1962), The Revolution in Psychiatry (1964), Beyond Alienation (1967), The Structure of Evil (1968), Angel in Armor (1969), The Lost Science of Man (1971), The Denial of Death (1973) and Escape from Evil (1975).
Where should I start with Ernest Becker?
With The Denial of Death (1973). It is his most complete statement and does not depend on the earlier books. If you want to go further, read Escape from Evil next.
What is Ernest Becker’s most famous book?
The Denial of Death, published in 1973. It won the 1974 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and is the book behind terror management theory in social psychology.
What is The Denial of Death about?
Becker argues that people are the only animal that knows it will die, and that much of human behaviour, from personality to religion to the causes people serve, is an effort to keep that knowledge at bay. He calls these efforts immortality projects and heroism, and argues that clashes between rival projects feed war, racism and nationalism.
Did Ernest Becker win the Pulitzer Prize?
Yes, but he did not live to receive it. The Denial of Death won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1974, about two months after he died of colon cancer on 6 March 1974.
Is Escape from Evil a sequel to The Denial of Death?
In effect, yes. Becker was writing it when he died, and it was completed from his manuscript and notes for publication in 1975. It applies the argument about death anxiety to societies, history and evil, rather than to the individual.
Why was Ernest Becker fired from Syracuse?
He taught anthropology in the psychiatry department of the medical college at Syracuse from 1960 and did not have tenure. He was dismissed, with other untenured staff, after supporting the right of the psychiatrist Thomas Szasz to teach his views to students; he defended Szasz’s academic freedom rather than his ideas. He was later rehired by Syracuse University’s School of Education.
What is terror management theory?
A research programme in social psychology that turned Becker’s ideas into testable experiments, starting in the 1980s. It studies how reminders of death change what people think and do, and has been used to explain self-esteem, prejudice and religious belief. It has produced hundreds of published studies.
Is there a film about Ernest Becker?
Yes. The documentary Flight from Death (2003), directed by Patrick Shen, is based on his work and was partly funded by the Ernest Becker Foundation. No video recording of Becker himself is known; his conversation with Sam Keen survives as audio and in print.
Footnotes
- Ernest Becker — Wikipedia
- The Denial of Death — Wikipedia
- Ernest Becker, 1974 General Nonfiction — The Pulitzer Prizes
- Books — Ernest Becker Foundation
- Audio of Becker — Ernest Becker Foundation
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else.”
— Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death (1973)
If this shelf interested you, the full bookshelf has more: reading lists by theme, author guides, and notes on what is actually worth your time.
Browse the full bookshelf Get book recommendations