From the editor: One, two, three

I don’t know if there’s a scholar out there willing to risk an otherwise stellar academic career by devoting a few months to answer what I consider an important question or not, but I would love to find out (without conducting the research myself) just when lists became an American obsession.

Certainly the phenomenon predated the 1977 publication of “The Book of Lists” and David Letterman’s nightly top ten lists that followed. Perhaps it could be traced to the “Hit Parade” and other accounts of the week’s top songs, reaching back to the 1940s. One memorable countdown dates b...