New York City, the center of commerce and culture in America, also happens to be home to a plurality of the country’s most caustic, destructive, and dangerous citizens, according to a bestselling book.

Columbia University president Lee Bollinger, Columbia history scholar Eric Foner, presidential candidate Al Sharpton, and inveterate political adviser Robert Shrum are among the New Yorkers who show up in Bernard Goldberg’s “100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (and Al Franken is #37).” The polemic is no. 3 on the Book Standard’s list of nonfiction best sellers, and rising.

They and other New Yorkers targeted by Mr. Goldberg constitute about a quarter of his list, a somewhat whimsical compilation of celebrities, politicians, athletes, journalists, actors, and activists whom the author has deemed most worthy of contempt. New Yorkers, who number about 8 million, make up less than 3% of the country’s population of almost 300 million.

Mr. Goldberg, a former CBS News journalist, author of the 2001 best-seller “Bias,” and a Miami resident, said he wasn’t aware of the disproportionate number of New Yorkers that he lambastes. When he was putting the book together, he said, he “never counted how many New Yorkers” it contained.

“I promise you that this is the first I’m hearing about how many New Yorkers are on the list,” the South Bronx native said.

By his reasoning, New Yorkers should feel good about their over-representation of screw-ups. He suspected that the city would naturally have more ripe targets because it’s filled with so many “successful” people.

A spokeswoman for Columbia, Susan Brown, said the university wouldn’t comment on Mr. Bollinger’s inclusion in the list. Mr. Bollinger comes in at no. 24, ahead of a convicted murderer, James Kopp, and behind a group of underground, violent environmentalists known as the Earth Liberation Front.

Mr. Goldberg holds Mr. Bollinger up for scorn because of the academic’s prominent role as president of the University of Michigan when its affirmative action admissions policies were challenged. The Supreme Court, in twin decisions two years ago in the cases of Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger, upheld the principle of using race-based admissions to achieve diversity.

“Bollinger was the guy pushing it big-time,” Mr. Goldberg said. “He’s one of the foremost defenders of affirmative action.” Further down the list, Mr. Goldberg sets his sights on a Civil War historian, Eric Foner, one of Columbia’s best-known faculty members. Mr. Foner makes the list, Mr. Goldberg writes, for equating the horror of the September 11 terrorist attacks to White House rhetoric.

Writing in the London Review of Books, Mr. Foner opened a piece: “I’m not sure which is more frightening: the horror that engulfed New York City or the apocalyptic rhetoric emanating daily from the White House.”

Asked about his place in Mr. Goldberg’s book, Mr. Foner in an e-mail, brushed off the criticism with a quip: “Yes, I am in the book at 75, but the basketball player Latrell Sprewell is number 30 so clearly I have a long way to go if my aim is to screw up America.”

He continued: “The whole premise of the book is so ridiculous that it is really not worth commenting on. Judging from the effect of his policies on world opinion regarding the US, the natural environment, and the distribution of income in this country, President Bush should certainly be on that list somewhere.”

Mr. Bush didn’t make the cut, nor did any former president.

Other New Yorkers on the list include the writer of the play “The Vagina Monologues,” Eve Ensler (accused of trying to steal Valentine’s Day); the president of the Ford Foundation, Susan Berresford (Mr. Goldberg mistakenly leaves out an “r” in her last name); a Vanity Fair contributing editor, James Wolcott (who suggested that America ought to choke on its own vomit if it elected Mr. Bush to a second term), and the television journalist Diane Sawyer (ridiculed for her bubbly celebrity interviews).

Mr. Goldberg said he’s read a lot of nasty reactions to his book on the Internet but hasn’t heard from too many people on the list, except for someone who placed in the top five. That target, Mr. Goldberg said, called to compliment him on his accuracy and fairness. Mr. Goldberg said he thought the person wanted the conversation to remain private, and the author spoke of it only on condition that the person’s name not be disclosed.

Although he denies that he targeted New Yorkers, Mr. Goldberg said he is bothered by the way they “look down their snobby noses at Middle Americans who like to eat at Red Lobster and like to go to church.”