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

This is one of the 759 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
10889 Sabbatai Sevi Gershom Scholem 1973 German German
11503 Hibakusha Gaynor Sekimori 1986 Hibakusha Unknown
10308 Memoirs Of A Revolutionary Victor Serge 1951 French French
865 The Pillow Book Sei Shōnagon 1002 Japanese Japanese
10308 The Philosophy Of Money Georg Simmel 1900 German German
3806 Critique Of Cynical Reason Peter Sloterdijk 1983 German German
3812 Reflections On Violence Georges Sorel 1908 French French
10308 An Actor Prepares Konstantin Stanislavski 1936 Russian Russian
10308 The Russian Revolution N. N. Sukhanov 1922 Russian Russian
8771 An Introduction To Zen Buddhism D. T. Suzuki 1934 Japanese English
2503 Popol Vuh Dennis Tedlock 1985 Mayan K'iche'
12175 Tibetan Book Of The Dead Robert Thurman 1994 Tibetan English
10308 Curious Naturalists Niko Tinbergen 1958 British English
10308 The Social Teachings Of The Christian Churches Ernst Troeltsch 1912 German German
10308 History Of The Russian Revolution Leon Trotsky 1930 Russian Russian
10966 The Films In My Life Francois Truffaut 1975 French French
7671 The Letters Of Vincent Van Gogh Vincent van Gogh 1914 Dutch Dutch
10308 Worlds In Collision Immanuel Velikovsky 1950 American English
10966 The Roman Empire Paul Veyne 1975 French French
1740 The Forty Days Of Musa Dagh Franz Werfel 1933 Austrian German
911 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Max Weber 1905 German German
10308 The Need For Roots Simone Weil 1949 French French
4193 Oriental Despotism Karl August Wittfogel 1957 German English
438 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
11812 On The Passage Of A Few People Through A Rather Brief Moment In Time Peter Wollen 1989 British English
923 The World Of Yesterday Stefan Zweig 1942 Austrian German