The Greatest Books of All Time on Agriculture

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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
160 My Antonia Willa Cather 1918 American English
162 Silent Spring Rachel Carson 1962 American English
281 The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck 1931 American English
480 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons 1932 British English
594 Growth of the Soil Knut Hamsun 1917 Norwegian Norwegian
693 Little House on the Prairie Laura Ingalls Wilder 1935 American English
928 Tobacco Road Erskine Caldwell 1932 American English
980 News from Nowhere William Morris 1890 British English
1000 A Thousand Acres Jane Smiley 1991 American English
1049 Works and Days Hesiod -700 Greek Ancient greek
1365 Nectar in a Sieve Kamala Markandaya 1954 Indian English
1384 Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond 1997 American English
1516 The People of Hemsö August Strindberg 1887 Swedish Swedish
1710 The Peasants Władysław Reymont 1904 Polish Polish
2031 The Devil's Pool George Sand 1846 French French
2148 The Book of Songs China -600 Chinese Classical chinese
2263 Georgics Virgil 29 Latin Latin
2330 Sunset Song Lewis Grassic Gibbon 1932 Scottish English
2511 On the Black Hill Bruce Chatwin 1982 British English
2750 The Worm Forgives The Plough John Stewart Collis 1947 British English
2937 Jauche Und Levkojen Christine Brückner 1975 German German
3009 The Octopus Frank Norris 1901 American English
3041 South Riding Winifred Holtby 1936 British English
3310 Cross Creek Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 1942 American English
3324 Broad and Alien is the World Ciro Alegría 1941 Peruvian Spanish
3324 The Harvesters Cesare Pavese 1941 Italian Unknown
3324 House in the Uplands Erskine Caldwell 1946 American English
3558 Memoirs of a Peasant Boy Xosé Neira Vilas 1961 Spanish Galician
3637 Letters from an American Farmer J. Crevecoeur 1782 American English
3637 Uli The Farmhand Jeremias Gotthelf 1841 Swiss German
4496 The Unsettling of America Wendell Berry 1977 American English
4570 The Taste Of Country Cooking Edna Lewis 1976 American English
4657 Lanterns on the Levee William Alexander Percy 1941 American English
4717 I'll Take My Stand Twelve Southerners 1930 American English
4750 The Omnivore's Dilemma Michael Pollan 2006 American English
4751 Origins of the New South C. Vann Woodward 1951 American English
5354 New Hampshire Robert Frost 1923 American English
5528 The Rise And Fall Of The Third Chimpanzee Jared Diamond 1991 American English
5573 Fast Food Nation Eric Schlosser 2001 American English
5691 All God’s Dangers Theodore Rosengarten 1974 American English
5808 Prairie Fires Caroline Fraser 2017 American English
5862 Barren Ground Ellen Glasgow 1925 American English
5977 1491 Charles C. Mann 2005 American English
6101 Unity And Struggle Amilcar Cabral 1979 Guinean Portuguese
6203 The Earth Émile Zola 1887 French French
6215 Indul A Bakterház Sándor Rideg 1973 Hungarian Hungarian
6302 Lord Of The Barnyard Tristan Egolf 1998 American English
6748 The Garlic Ballads Yan Mo 1988 Chinese Chinese
6767 Idaho Federal Writers' Project 1937 American English
6813 La Barraca Vicente Blasco Ibáñez 1898 Spanish Spanish
6921 São Bernardo Graciliano Ramos 1934 Brazilian Portuguese
7588 Moo Jane Smiley 1995 American English
7723 The Peasants Of Languedoc Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie 1966 French French
7819 Men Of Maize Miguel Angel Asturias 1949 Guatemalan Spanish
8023 Cadillac Desert Marc Reisner 1986 American English
8106 Call Home The Heart Olive Tilford Dargan 1932 American English
8106 Purple Springs Nellie L. McClung 1921 Canadian English
8106 Weeds Edith Summers Kelley 1923 Canadian English
8335 The Grass Claude Simon 1958 French French
8375 The Seed Is Mine Charles Van Onselen 1996 South African English
8405 Meek Heritage Frans Eemil Sillanpää 1919 Finnish Finnish
8874 Fogo Morto José Lins Do Rego 1943 Brazilian Portuguese
8933 Storm In The Village Miss Read 1958 British English
8975 The Mother Pearl S. Buck 1934 American English
9005 Regain Jean Giono 1930 French French
9134 Raised From The Ground José Saramago 1980 Portuguese Portuguese
9521 Oranges John McPhee 1967 American English
9884 Man And The Natural World Keith Thomas 1983 British English
10067 Verdes Valles, Colinas Rojas Ramiro Pinilla 2004 Spanish Spanish
10154 So Big Edna Ferber 1924 American English
10155 Honey in the Horn Harold L. Davis 1935 American English
10165 Harvest Jim Crace 2013 British English
10305 Theory Of Peasant Economy Alexander V. Chayanov 1925 Russian Russian
10744 Farm Hands Tom Rivers 2012 American English
10815 Firelight and Woodsmoke Claude Michelet 1979 French French
11137 And Their Children After Them Dale Maharidge, Michael Williamson 1989 American English
11195 Stranglehold On Africa René Dumont 1980 French French
11232 Godnatt, Jord Ivar Lo-Johansson 1933 Swedish Swedish
11452 Lamb in His Bosom Caroline Miller 1933 American English
12325 The Lost Upland W. S. Merwin 1992 American English
12608 Early Fort Myers Alberta C. Barnes Unknown Unknown
13307 Lotus Creek Sun Li 1950 Chinese Unknown
13360 A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain Daniel Defoe 1724 British English
13520 My Native Land Chung Li-ho 1956 Chinese Chinese
13533 The Writings Of Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson 1903 American English
13600 Le Rouet D'ivoire And Jean Des Brebis Ou Le Livre De La Misère Émile Moselly French French
13600 The Call Of The Soil Adrien Bertrand 1916 French French
13600 Nêne Ernest Pérochon 1920 French French
13600 Vent De Mars Henri Pourrat 1941 French French
13703 Collapse Jared Diamond 2005 American English
13795 艷陽天 Hao Ran 1964 Chinese Chinese
13818 The Mussolini Canal Antonio Pennacchi 2010 Italian Italian
14138 Farmer in the Sky Robert A. Heinlein 1950 American English
14212 Enriching The Earth Vaclav Smil 2001 Canadian English
14384 Numbers Don't Lie Vaclav Smil 2021 Czech English
14410 The Man Who Fed The World Leon Hesser 2006 American English
14457 Tomorrow's Table Pamela C. Ronald 2008 American English
14486 Modern Egypt Evelyn Baring, Earl of Cromer 1908 British English
14598 One Billion Hungry Gordon Conway 2012 British English
14629 How Asia Works Joe Studwell 2013 British English
14629 Harvesting The Biosphere Vaclav Smil 2013 Czech English
14629 Should We Eat Meat? Vaclav Smil 2013 Czech English
14629 China Along The Yellow River Cao Jinqing 2000 Chinese Chinese
14679 A Full Life Jimmy Carter 2015 American English
14708 White Deer Plain Chen Zhongshi 1993 Chinese Chinese
14730 Energy And Civilization Vaclav Smil 2017 Czech English
14897 When Rain Clouds Gather Bessie Head 1968 Botswana English
14982 The Milagro Beanfield War John Nichols 1974 American English
14984 The History Of Bees Maja Lunde 2015 Norwegian Norwegian
15832 The Little House Collection Laura Ingalls Wilder 1932 American English
15849 Anna Karanina Leo Tolstoy 1873 Russian Russian
15902 The Masters and the Slaves Gilberto Freyre 1933 Brazilian Portuguese
15902 Letters Of A Woman Homesteader Elinore Pruitt Stewart 1914 American English
15902 Small Talk At Wreyland Cecil Torr 1918 British English
15902 Native Planters In Old Hawaii Elizabeth Hand, E. C. S. Handy 1940 American English
15902 Factories In The Fields Carey McWilliams 1939 American English
15902 The Agrarian System Of Mughal India Irfan Habib 1963 Indian English
16536 Akenfield Ronald Blythe 1969 American English
16536 Torregreca Ann Cornelisen 1969 Torregreca English
16620 Fanshen William Hinton 1966 American English