The Greatest Asian History Books of All Time

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 409 '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
698 Orientalism Edward W. Said 1978 Palestinian English
1016 Tao Te Ching Lao Tsu -300 Chinese Classical chinese
933 A Study of History Arnold J. Toynbee 1934 British English
997 Behind the Beautiful Forevers Katherine Boo 2012 American English
1106 The Pillow Book Sei Shōnagon 1002 Japanese Japanese
1143 Wild Swans Jung Chang 1991 Chinese English
1154 Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari 2011 Israeli Hebrew
1838 The Rise of the West William H. McNeill 1963 American English
1980 Shah Of Shahs Ryszard Kapuscinski 1982 Polish Polish
2028 Seven Years in Tibet Heinrich Harrer 1952 Austrian German
2033 I Ching China -1000 Chinese Chinese
2037 The Travels of Ibn Battutah Ibn Battúta 1355 Moroccan Arabic
2577 Falling Leaves Adeline Yen Mah 1997 Chinese English
3054 Making Trouble Loa Ho 1930 Chinese Chinese
3064 Travels Marco Polo 1300 Italian Old french
3133 The Confessions Of Lady Nijo Lady Nijo 1307 Japanese Japanese
3158 Moment In Peking Lin Yutang 1939 Chinese English
3401 The Bookseller of Kabul Asne Seierstad 2002 Norwegian Norwegian
3434 Oriental Despotism Karl August Wittfogel 1957 German English
3662 Memoirs Of A Korean Queen Lady Hyegyeong 1795 Korean Korean
3744 A Daughter Of Han Ning Lao Tai-Tai, told to Ida Pruitt 1945 Chinese English
3744 Fifth Chinese Daughter Jade Snow Wong 1945 American English
3963 The Gate of Heavenly Peace Jonathan Spence 1981 American English
4004 The Private Life of Chairman Mao Li Zhi-Sui 1994 Chinese English
4064 Nisei Daughter Monica Itoi Sone 1953 American English
4097 Nothing to Envy Barbara Demick 2009 American English
4105 First They Killed My Father Loung Ung 2000 Cambodian English
4265 The Silent Steppe Mukhamet Shayakhmetov 2006 Kazakh English
4283 An Area Of Darkness V. S. Naipaul 1964 British English
4283 A Barbarian In Asia Henri Michaux 1933 French French
4283 From A Chinese City Gontran de Poncins 1957 French English
4283 Slowly Down The Ganges Eric Newby 1966 British English
4717 In Xanadu William Dalrymple 1989 British English
4874 China Along The Yellow River Cao Jinqing 2000 Chinese Chinese
5059 Guests Of The Sheik Elizabeth Warnock Fernea 1965 American English
5161 The Death of Woman Wang MMP Jonathan Spence 1978 American English
5318 Iron & Silk Mark Salzman 1986 American English
5357 The Best We Could Do Thi Bui 2017 American English
5374 Chasing The Monsoon Alexander Frater 1987 British English
5485 Records of the Grand Historian Sima Qian 91 Chinese Classical chinese
5647 The Rise And Fall Of The Great Powers Paul Kennedy 1987 British English
5973 The Hundred Years’ War On Palestine Rashid Khalidi 2020 American English
6386 War Trash Ha Jin 2004 Chinese English
6406 Maximum City Suketu Mehta 2004 American English
6422 The Great Partition Yasmin Khan 2007 British English
6434 Nothing Ever Dies Viet Thanh Nguyen 2016 American English
6440 Hiroshima Notes Kenzaburō Ōe 1965 Japanese Japanese
6515 Factory Girls Leslie T. Chang 2008 American English
6520 India After Gandhi Ramachandra Guha 2007 Indian English
6562 Empire Of Cotton Sven Beckert 2014 American English
6575 The Vanishing Generation Bagila Bukharbayeva 2019 Uzbek English
6638 Atarashii Chūsei Akihiko Tanaka 2003 Japanese Unknown
6770 Zeng Guofan Tang Haoming 1992 Chinese Chinese
6879 Along The Ganges Ilija Trojanow 2005 German German
6879 Wrong About Japan Peter Carey 2005 Australian English
6950 Krakatoa Simon Winchester 2003 Krakatoa English
6979 Manchuria Under Japanese Dominion Shinichi Yamamuro 2006 Japanese Japanese
6995 A History of the World in 100 Objects Neil MacGregor 2010 British English
7079 From The Ruins Of Empire Pankaj Mishra 2012 Indian English
7171 The Ordeal Of Elizabeth Marsh Linda Colley 2007 British English
7355 The Anarchy William Dalrymple 2019 British English
7440 Showa 1926-1939 Shigeru Mizuki 2009 Japanese Japanese
7504 Farthest Field Raghu Karnad 2015 Indian English
7720 Ants Among Elephants Sujatha Gidla 2017 American English
7881 May You Be The Mother Of A Hundred Sons Elisabeth Bumiller 1990 American English
7881 Quiet Odyssey Mary Paik Lee 1990 Korean American English
7942 The Corpse Walker Liao Yiwu 2008 Chinese Chinese
7972 Minshu To Aikoku Eiji Oguma 2014 Japanese Japanese
8037 The Road Through Miyama Leila Philip 1991 American English
8263 Daughter Of Persia Sattareh Farman-Farmaian 1992 Iranian English
8311 Hiroshima Diary Michihiko Hachiya 1955 Japanese Japanese
8312 The Book Of Tea Kakuzō Okakura 1906 Japanese English
8375 Ghost Wars Steve Coll 2004 American English
8516 All The Emperor’s Horses David Kidd 1960 American English
8667 The Tale Of The Heike Unknown 1371 Japanese Japanese
8696 Burmese Looking Glass Edith Mirante 1993 American English
8746 The Mongol Empire Peter Ludwig Brent 1976 British English
8749 The Memory Palace Of Matteo Ricci Jonathan Spence 1984 American English
8974 The Search For Modern China Jonathan Spence 1990 American English
8915 China Men Maxine Hong Kingston 1980 American English
8915 Dawn To The West Donald Keene 1984 American English
8915 Life And Death In Shanghai Nien Cheng 1986 Chinese English
9039 The Works Of The People Of Old Samuel Manaiakalani Kamakau 1971 Unknown Hawaiian
9106 We Are Not Free Traci Chee 2020 American English
9226 How We Won The War Võ Nguyên Giáp 1976 Vietnamese Vietnamese
9464 The Man Who Stayed Behind Sidney Rittenberg 1993 American English
9490 The Gardens Of Japan Teiji Itoh 1984 Japanese English
9584 Japanese Philosophy John C. Maraldo, Thomas P. Kasulis, James W. Heisig 2011 American English
9673 The Great Divergence Kenneth Pomeranz 2000 American English
9694 From Dawn To Decadence Jacques Barzun 2000 American English
9791 Fire in the Lake Frances FitzGerald 1972 American English
9897 Tibetan Book Of The Dead Robert Thurman 1994 Tibetan English
10026 The Rising Sun John Toland 1970 American English
10026 Stilwell and the American Experience in China Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1971 American English
10026 Embracing Defeat John W. Dower 1999 American English
10026 Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan Herbert P. Bix 2000 American English
9949 Age of Ambition Evan Osnos 2014 American English
10308 Destiny Disrupted Tamim Ansary 2009 American English
10366 Deng Xiaoping And The Transformation Of China Ezra F. Vogel 2011 American English
10449 How Asia Works Joe Studwell 2013 British English
10516 War Without Mercy John W. Dower 1986 American English
10586 The Great Leveler Walter Scheidel 2017 American English
10911 Ghosts Of The Tsunami Richard Lloyd Parry 2017 British English
11233 The Tibetan Book of the Dead Padmasambhava, Karma Lingpa 1350 Tibetan Tibetan
11394 Red Memory Tania Branigan 2023 Chinese English
11394 Maoism Julia Lovell 2019 British English
11394 The Blood Telegram Gary J. Bass 2013 American English
11394 Autumn In The Heavenly Kingdom Stephen R. Platt 2012 American English
11295 Mao's Great Famine Frank Dikötter 2010 British English
12226 Japanese Inn Statler, Oliver. 1961 American English
12226 Baburnama Zahir Uddin Muhammad Babur 1530 Baburnama Chagatai turkish
11735 Red Star Over China Edgar Snow 1937 American English
12356 Japanese Homes And Their Surroundings Edwin Morse 1886 American English
11734 The Autobiography Of An Unknown Indian Nirad C. Chaudhuri 1951 Indian English
12602 In Our Image Stanley Karnow 1989 American English
12602 Embers of War Fredrik Logevall 2012 American English
12602 Crusade and Jihad Bassam Tibi 2017 German English
12602 Delhi Khushwant Singh 1990 Indian English
12602 Empireland Sathnam Sanghera 2021 British English
12602 A Line In The Sand James Barr 2011 British English