The Greatest Books of All Time on Academic

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
177 The Interpretation of Dreams Sigmund Freud 1899 Austrian German
279 The Secret History Donna Tartt 1992 American English
319 The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money John Maynard Keynes 1936 British English
328 Das Kapital Karl Marx 1867 German German
392 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
402 The Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle -334 Greek Ancient greek
417 The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Thomas Kuhn 1962 American English
438 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
440 The Origins of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt 1951 German English
458 Critique of Pure Reason Immanuel Kant 1781 German German
543 Discourse on Method Rene Descartes 1637 French French
646 The Varieties of Religious Experience William James 1902 American English
653 Summa Theologica Thomas Aquinas 1274 Italian Latin
664 Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy Joseph A. Schumpeter 1942 Austrian English
682 The Open Society and Its Enemies Karl Popper 1945 British English
805 Gaudy Night Dorothy L. Sayers 1935 British English
844 Civilization and Its Discontents Sigmund Freud 1930 Austrian German
870 Economy and Society Max Weber 1922 German German
911 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Max Weber 1905 German German
934 The Theory of the Leisure Class Thorstein Veblen 1899 American English
945 Sexual Behavior in the Human Male Alfred C. Kinsey 1948 American English
1045 Selected Essays of T. S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1932 British English
1082 The Abolition of Man C. S. Lewis 1943 British English
1147 Dialectic Of Enlightenment Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer 1944 German German
1188 The Quest for Community Robert Nisbet 1953 American English
1212 A General Introduction to Psycho-Analysis Sigmund Freud 1920 Austrian German
1248 The Conservative Mind Russell Kirk 1953 American English
1276 The Feynman Lectures on Physics Richard P. Feynman 1963 American English
1295 Phenomenology of Mind G. W. F. Hegel 1807 German German
1320 God and Man at Yale William F. Buckley, Jr 1951 American English
1342 The Principles of Psychology William James 1890 American English
1363 The Liberal Imagination Lionel Trilling 1950 American English
1449 Corpus Aristotelicum Aristotle -322 Greek Greek
1462 An American Dilemma Gunnar Myrdal 1944 Swedish English
1477 An Essay on the Principle of Population Thomas Robert Malthus 1798 British English
1526 A History of Western Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1945 British English
1529 Orientalism Edward W. Said 1978 Palestinian English
1539 On the Genealogy of Morality Friedrich Nietzsche 1887 German German
1540 Decline of the West Oswald Spengler 1918 German German
1572 Nature and Destiny of Man Reinhold Niebuhr 1941 American English
1600 Studies in the Psychology of Sex Havelock Ellis 1897 British English
1617 Ways Of Seeing John Berger 1972 British English
1677 A Theory of Justice John Rawls 1971 American English
1706 The Principia Mathematica Alfred North Whitehead, Bertrand Russell 1910 British English
1721 Pragmatism William James 1907 American English
1746 Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion David Hume 1779 British English
1787 Sexual Politics Kate Millett 1970 American English
1803 The Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1912 British English
1952 The Idea of History R. G. Collingwood 1946 British English
1959 Discipline and Punish Michel Foucault 1975 French French
2079 Rationalism in Politics Michael Oakeshott 1962 British English
2161 The Uses of Literacy Richard Hoggart 1957 British English
2225 Aspects of the Novel E. M. Forster 1927 British English
2264 Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality Sigmund Freud 1905 Austrian German
2292 Consciousness Explained Daniel Dennett 1991 American English
2410 The Fear Of Freedom Erich Fromm 1941 German English
2418 A Mathematician's Apology G. H. Hardy 1940 British English
2420 Natural Right and History Leo Strauss 1953 American English
2508 Metaphysics Aristotle -347 Greek Ancient greek
2563 The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology Edmund Husserl 1936 German German
2574 The Hedgehog and the Fox Isaiah Berlin 1953 British English
2621 Main Currents in American Thought Vernon L. Parrington 1927 American English
2624 The Hero with a Thousand Faces Joseph Campbell 1949 American English
2634 Logical Investigations Edmund Husserl 1900 German German
2647 The ABC of Reading Ezra Pound 1934 American English
2653 Suicide Emile Durkheim 1897 French French
2815 The Gnostic Gospels Elaine Pagels 1979 American English
2935 The Two Cultures And The Scientific Revolution C. P. Snow 1959 British English
2951 Exit, Voice, And Loyalty Albert Hirschman 1970 American English
2960 Prison Notebooks Antonio Gramsci 1948 Italian Italian
3001 The Savage Mind Claude Lévi-Strauss 1962 French French
3104 Foreign Affairs Alison Lurie 1984 American English
3115 Principia Ethica George Edward Moore 1903 British English
3164 Gender Trouble Judith Butler 1990 American English
3201 The Pillar And Ground Of The Truth Pavel Florensky 1914 Russian Russian
3427 The Great Transformation Karl Polanyi 1944 Canadian English
3440 Ideas Have Consequences Richard M. Weaver 1948 American English
3491 Democracy and Leadership Irving Babbitt 1924 American English
3512 Scrutiny F. R. Leavis 1932 British English
3517 The Presentation Of Self In Everyday Life Erving Goffman 1959 American English
3518 Bureaucracy Ludwig von Mises 1944 Austrian English
3528 Poetry and the Age Randall Jarrell 1953 American English
3529 Love in the Western World Denis de Rougemont 1939 Swiss French
3561 Insight Bernard Lonergan 1957 Canadian English
3638 Homo Ludens Johan Huizinga 1938 Dutch Dutch
3638 Die Homosexualität Des Mannes Und Des Weibes Magnus Hirschfeld 1920 German German
3940 Three Case Histories Sigmund Freud 1963 Austrian German
3947 Antériorité Des Civilisations Nègres Cheikh Anta Diop 1954 Senegalese French
4112 Art and Illusion Ernest H. Gombrich 1960 British English
4205 The Colonizer and the Colonized Albert Memmi 1957 French French
4430 One Dimensional Man Herbert Marcuse 1964 German English
4469 The Unheavenly City Edward C. Banfield 1970 American English
4616 Sociobiology E. O. Wilson 1975 American English
4686 The Myth Of The Eternal Return Mircea Eliade 1949 Romanian French
4686 Christianity And Culture T. S. Eliot 1939 British English
4686 The Idea Of The Holy Rudolf Otto 1917 German English
4686 Major Trends In Jewish Mysticism Gershom Scholem 1929 German German
4731 The Making of Homeric Verse Milman Parry 1971 American English
4743 The Christian Tradition Jaroslav Pelikan 1971 American English
4866 Grid Systems In Graphic Design Josef Müller-Brockmann 1981 Swiss German
5003 In A Different Voice Carol Gilligan 1982 American English
5033 Images And Symbols Mircea Eliade 1952 Romanian French
5302 The Love Of Learning And The Desire For God Jean Leclercq 1960 French French
5999 The Classical Style Charles Rosen 1971 American English
6172 Philosophy and Civilization John Dewey 1931 American English
6225 The Chinese Enlightenment Vera Schwarcz 1986 Unknown English
6238 Dictionary Of Newfoundland English G.M. Story 1982 Canadian English
6279 The Mirror and the Lamp Meyer Howard Abrams 1953 American English
6329 Religion And The Rise Of Capitalism R. H. Tawney 1926 British English
6364 Studies in Iconology Erwin Panofsky 1939 German English
6429 Ideas and Opinions Albert Einstein 1954 German English
6441 Mystical Dimensions Of Islam Annemarie Schimmel 1975 Unknown English
6466 Disputers Of The Tao A. C. Graham 1989 British English
6481 The Dictionary Of New Zealand English Harry Orsman 1997 New Zealand English
6491 A Voice From The South Anna Julia Cooper 1892 American English
6633 Theatre, The Rediscovery Of Style Michel Saint-Denis 1960 French English
6716 On The Aesthetic Education Of Man Friedrich Schiller 1794 German German
6900 오월의 사회과학 최정운 1997 Korean Korean
7030 The Glory Of The Lord Hans Urs Von Balthasar 1982 Swiss German
8185 Feminist Theory bell hooks 1984 American English