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

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Counterpunch, 135 Books

In response to the proliferation of "best of the century" lists from major publications at the turn of the millennium, Jeffrey St. Clair and his colleague Alex decided to compile their own lists of the best books written and later translated into English during the 20th century. Their selections, aimed at the CounterPunch audience, diverged from mainstream choices, focusing instead on works that resonated deeply with their unique reader base. These lists became highly popular on the CounterPunch website, attracting over two million unique visitors and influencing librarians to reconsider the collections they maintained. However, a technical mishap during a website upgrade resulted in the loss of these carefully curated lists, likened humorously by Alex to the burning of the Library of Alexandria. Despite initial disheartenment, renewed interest and requests from the community prompted St. Clair to revisit and update these lists, reintroducing them with both cherished and new selections of non-fiction literature from the 20th century.

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
2107 Desert Solitaire Edward Abbey 1968 American English
15916 Dynamite Louis Adamic 1931 American English
17166 Inside The Company Philip Agee 1975 American English
4223 A Pattern Language Christopher Alexander 1977 American English
1701 The New Jim Crow Michelle Alexander 2010 American English
17166 Confessions Of A Muckraker Jack Anderson 1979 American English
15916 Hollywood Babylon Kenneth Anger 1959 American English
1160 Eichmann in Jerusalem Hannah Arendt 1963 German English
17166 Mushrooms Demystified David Arora 1986 American English
14985 The Devil Finds Work James Baldwin 1976 American English
17166 Los Angeles Reyner Banham 1971 British English
17166 Trampling Out The Vintage Frank Bardacke 2011 American English
1617 Ways Of Seeing John Berger 1972 British English
15916 You Can’t Win Jack Black 1926 American English
17166 The American Crucible Robin Blackburn 2011 British English
17166 The Crime And Punishment Of I. G. Farben Joseph Borkin 1978 American English
3099 Ball Four Jim Bouton 1970 American English
15916 Labor’s Untold Story Richard Boyer, Herbert Morais 1955 American English
17166 The Encyclopedia Of Organic Gardening Marshall Bradley, Fern Bradley, Barbara Ellis 1978 American English
17166 Labor And Monopoly Capital Harry Braverman 1974 American English
17166 For The Earth’s Sake David Brower 1991 American English
13919 Life Against Death Norman O. Brown 1959 American English
1163 The Road to Oxiana Robert Byron 1937 British English
162 Silent Spring Rachel Carson 1962 American English
15916 What Is History? E. H. Carr 1961 British English
17166 The Legacy Of Malthus Allan Chase 1977 American English
15916 The Country Blues Samuel B. Charters 1959 American English
17166 The Fateful Triangle Noam Chomsky 1983 American English
17166 The Threat Andrew Cockburn 1997 American English
15916 I, Claud Claud Cockburn 1962 Irish English
17166 Nature’s Metropolis William Cronon 1991 American English
15916 French Provincial Cooking Elizabeth David 1960 French English
14161 My Journey to Lhasa Alexandra David-Neel 1927 French French
9571 Custer Died For Your Sins Vine DeLoria, Jr. 1969 American English
17166 Geronimo Angie Debo 1976 American English
14985 War Without Mercy John W. Dower 1986 American English
15916 The Greeks And The Irrational E. R. Dodds 1951 British English
557 The Souls of Black Folk W. E. B. Du Bois 1903 American English
1601 Studies in the Psychology of Sex Havelock Ellis 1897 British English
15916 Seven Types Of Ambiguity William Empson 1930 British English
714 Encyclopedia Britannica Encyclopedia Britannica 1768 British English
5999 The Dialectic Of Sex Shulamith Firestone 1970 American English
2836 How to Cook a Wolf M. F. K. Fisher 1942 American English
14788 A Dictionary Of Modern English Usage H. W. Fowler 1926 British English
15916 Cézanne Roger Fry 1927 British English
14857 Anatomy Of Criticism Northrop Frye 1957 Canadian English
306 The Autobiography of Malcolm X Alex Haley 1965 American English
17166 The Long Haul Myles Horton 1990 American English
17166 American Ground Zero Carole Gallagher 1993 American English
14822 The Face Of War Martha Gellhorn 1959 American English
17166 Detroit Dan Georgakas 1975 Unknown English
3229 Growing Up Absurd Paul Goodman 1960 American English
2666 The Mismeasure of Man Stephen Jay Gould 1981 American English
15916 The Greek Myths Robert Graves 1955 British English
15916 Exploring The Dangerous Trades Alice Hamilton 1943 American English
15916 Native Planters In Old Hawaii Elizabeth Hand, E. C. S. Handy 1940 American English
17166 Warriors Gerald Hanley 1971 British English
15916 Themis Jane E. Harrison 1912 British English
17166 The Gospel Sound Anthony Heilbut 1971 American English
9264 The Price of Power Seymour M. Hersh 1983 American English
15916 Bull Cook George Leonard Herter, Berte Herter 1963 British English
17166 The World Turned Upside Down Christopher Hill 1972 British English
16648 Fanshen William Hinton 1966 American English
14985 Shelley Richard Holmes 1974 British English
17166 Deschooling Society Ivan Illich 1971 American English
15916 The Fur Trade In Canada Harold A. Innis 1930 Canadian English
3556 The Black Jacobins C. L. R. James 1938 British English
15916 The Life And Work Of Sigmund Freud Ernest Jones 1953 British English
9047 Blues People Leroi Jones 1963 American English
16552 The Nez Perce Indians And The Opening Of The Northwest Jr., Alvin Josephy 1965 American English
17166 The Politics Of War Walter Karp 1979 American English
17166 For Keeps Pauline Kael 1994 American English
17166 Thelonious Monk Robin D. G. Kelley 2009 American English
319 The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money John Maynard Keynes 1936 British English
945 Sexual Behavior in the Human Male Alfred C. Kinsey 1948 American English
17166 Anatomy Of A War Gabriel Kolko 1985 American English
17166 The Thirty Years’ War Andrew Kopkind 1996 American Unknown
17166 Harry Truman And The War Scare Of 1948 Frank Kofsky 1993 American English
17166 Lame Deer Richard Erodes, John Fire Lame Deer 1972 Unknown English
2294 The Divided Self R. D. Laing 1960 British English
14985 The Culture Of Narcissism Christopher Lasch 1979 American English
15916 Sketches Of Etruscan Places And Other Italian Essays D. H. Lawrence 1932 British English
15916 North Star Country Meridel Le Sueur 1945 American English
17166 The London Hanged Peter Linebaugh 1991 British English
15916 The Singer Of Tales Albert Bates Lord 1960 American English
8922 A River Runs Through It Norman Maclean 1976 American English
14788 Eastern Approaches Fitzroy Maclean 1949 British English
14985 Understanding Comics Scott McCloud 1993 American English
17166 The Politics Of Heroin Alfred McCoy 1972 American English
15916 Factories In The Fields Carey McWilliams 1939 American English
2260 Advertisements for Myself Norman Mailer 1959 American English
17166 The Heart Of Rock & Soul Dave Marsh 1989 American English
15916 The Machine In The Garden Leo Marx 1964 American English
17166 In The Spirit Of Crazy Horse Peter Matthiessen 1983 American English
8722 Prejudices H. L. Mencken 1919 American English
15916 The Air Conditioned Nightmare Henry Miller 1945 American English
15916 Listen, Yankee C. Wright Mills 1960 American English
2520 The American Way of Death Jessica Mitford 1963 American English
15916 The Masters Of Capital John Moody 1919 American English
15916 Japanese Homes And Their Surroundings Edwin Morse 1886 American English
17166 The Dada Painters and Poets Robert Motherwell 1978 American English
15916 Technics And Civilization Lewis Mumford 1934 American English
15916 Blues Fell This Morning Paul Oliver 1960 British English
2110 Oxford English Dictionary Oxford University Press 1884 British English
15916 Twelve Who Ruled R. R. Palmer 1941 American English
14985 Grizzly Years Doug Peacock 1990 American English
2254 A Field Guide to the Birds Roger Tory Peterson 1934 American English
17166 My Silent War Kim Philby 1968 British English
3426 The Great Transformation Karl Polanyi 1944 Canadian English
2648 The ABC of Reading Ezra Pound 1934 American English
17166 Threatening Anthropology David H. Price 2004 American English
15916 Architectural Graphic Standards Charles Ramsey, Harold Sleeper 1932 American English
4718 A Life of Picasso John Richardson 1991 British English
14174 Autobiography Bertrand Russell 1967 British English
1529 Orientalism Edward W. Said 1978 Palestinian English
8027 The Class Struggle In The Ancient Greek World G. E. M. de Ste. Croix 1981 British English
17166 A Month And A Day Ken Saro-Wiwa 1995 Nigerian English
14985 Death Without Weeping Nancy Scheper-Hughes 1992 American English
17166 The Gothic Politics Of The Deep South Robert Sherrill 1968 American English
15916 The Shame Of The Cities Lincoln Steffens 1904 American English