100 Best Non-Fiction Books (in Translation) of the 20th Century … and Beyond

This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Counterpunch, 146 Books

Jeffrey St. Clair and Alexander Cockburn lists the 100 best non-fiction books (in translation) of the 20th century. This list has way more books than 100. These guys can't count.

This list was originally published in 2014 and was added to this site about 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
10858 Sabbatai Sevi Gershom Scholem 1973 German German
11477 Hibakusha Gaynor Sekimori 1986 Hibakusha Unknown
10282 Memoirs Of A Revolutionary Victor Serge 1951 French French
865 The Pillow Book Sei Shōnagon 1002 Japanese Japanese
10282 The Philosophy Of Money Georg Simmel 1900 German German
3801 Critique Of Cynical Reason Peter Sloterdijk 1983 German German
3807 Reflections On Violence Georges Sorel 1908 French French
10282 An Actor Prepares Konstantin Stanislavski 1936 Russian Russian
10282 The Russian Revolution N. N. Sukhanov 1922 Russian Russian
8753 An Introduction To Zen Buddhism D. T. Suzuki 1934 Japanese English
2497 Popol Vuh Dennis Tedlock 1985 Mayan K'iche'
12148 Tibetan Book Of The Dead Robert Thurman 1994 Tibetan English
10282 Curious Naturalists Niko Tinbergen 1958 British English
10282 The Social Teachings Of The Christian Churches Ernst Troeltsch 1912 German German
10282 History Of The Russian Revolution Leon Trotsky 1930 Russian Russian
10935 The Films In My Life Francois Truffaut 1975 French French
7660 The Letters Of Vincent Van Gogh Vincent van Gogh 1914 Dutch Dutch
10282 Worlds In Collision Immanuel Velikovsky 1950 American English
10935 The Roman Empire Paul Veyne 1975 French French
1738 The Forty Days Of Musa Dagh Franz Werfel 1933 Austrian German
910 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Max Weber 1905 German German
10282 The Need For Roots Simone Weil 1949 French French
4187 Oriental Despotism Karl August Wittfogel 1957 German English
436 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
11787 On The Passage Of A Few People Through A Rather Brief Moment In Time Peter Wollen 1989 British English
922 The World Of Yesterday Stefan Zweig 1942 Austrian German