The Greatest Books of All Time on Diplomacy

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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
363 The Left Hand Of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin 1969 American English
377 The Education of Henry Adams Henry Adams 1907 American English
379 The Second World War Winston Churchill 1948 British English
689 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin 1791 American English
1244 The Travels of Marco Polo Marco Polo 1300 Italian Old french
1580 The Struggle for Europe Chester Wilmot 1952 British English
1588 The Guns of August Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1962 American English
1874 The Proud Tower Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1966 American English
2008 Bosnian Chronicle Ivo Andrić 1945 Bosnian Serbo-croatian
2199 The Last Lion William Manchester 1983 American English
2507 Memoirs of Louis XIV Louis de Rouvroy Saint-Simon (duc de) 1740 French French
2643 Perpetual Peace Immanuel Kant 1795 German German
2960 Jefferson and His Time Dumas Malone 1948 American English
3155 The Honorary Consul Graham Greene 1973 British English
3637 Charter of the United Nations United Nations 1945 Multiple English
3928 The Vice-Consul Marguerite Duras 1966 French French
4393 The Winds Of War Herman Wouk 1971 American English
4578 No Ordinary Time Doris Kearns Goodwin 1994 American English
4628 The Opium War Julia Lovell 2011 British English
4854 Melbourne David Cecil 1939 British English
5088 Imperial Life in the Emerald City Rajiv Chandrasekaran 2006 American English
5123 Creation Gore Vidal 1981 American English
5311 The Adams Jefferson Letters Lester J. Cappon 1959 American English
5583 Professor Martens' Departure Jaan Kross 1984 Estonian Estonian
5743 Diaries Alan Clark 1993 British English
5863 The Book Of The Courtier Baldassare Castiglione 1528 Italian Italian
5863 France And England In North America Francis Parkman 1865 American English
5955 A Good Man In Africa William Boyd 1981 British English
6146 Roosevelt James MacGregor Burns 1970 American English
6165 Present at the Creation Dean Acheson 1969 American English
6224 Power Politics Martin Wright 1946 British Unknown
6478 Second World War John Keegan 1989 British English
6599 Benjamin Franklin Carl Van Doren 1938 American English
6619 The Struggle For Mastery In Europe A. J. P. Taylor 1954 British English
6652 Fail Safe Eugene Burdick, Harvey Wheeler 1962 American English
6748 Hoffman's Hunger Leon de Winter 1990 Dutch Dutch
6888 The Boxer Rebellion Diana Preston 1999 Unknown English
7077 Autumn In The Heavenly Kingdom Stephen R. Platt 2012 American English
7216 Mémoires Philippe de Commynes 1524 French French
7216 The Frigate Pallada Ivan Goncharov 1858 Russian Russian
7609 The Complete War Memoirs Of Charles De Gaulle Charles De Gaulle 1954 French French
7967 Mountolive Lawrence Durrell 1958 British English
8207 My Life Bill Clinton 2004 American English
8568 Ghost Wars Steve Coll 2004 American English
8771 John Adams David McCullough 2001 American English
9010 Four Plays Jean Giraudoux 1967 French French
9075 Cleopatra Stacy Schiff 2010 Egyptian English
9254 Arabs And Israelis Abdel Monem Said Aly, Shai Feldman, Khalil Shikaki 2013 Multiple English
9263 The Price of Power Seymour M. Hersh 1983 American English
9263 From Beirut to Jerusalem Thomas L. Friedman 1989 American English
9280 The Balkan Trilogy Olivia Manning 1960 British English
9548 Stilwell and the American Experience in China Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1971 American English
9700 The Beautiful Country And The Middle Kingdom John Pomfret 2016 American English
9711 Common Security The Independent Commission on Disarmament and Security Issues 1982 Unknown English
9906 A Memory Called Empire Arkady Martine 2019 American English
10108 The Fifth Elephant Terry Pratchett 1999 British English
10221 Her Majesty's Secret Service Christopher Andrew 1985 Unknown English
10241 Putin's World Angela Stent 2019 American English
10366 A Desolation Called Peace Arkady Martine 2021 American English
10367 The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page Burton J. Hendrick 1922 American English
10454 A Peace To End All Peace David Fromkin 1989 American English
10454 Churchill Andrew Roberts 2018 British English
10502 The Second Oldest Profession Phillip Knightley 1986 British English
10774 Not One Inch M. E. Sarotte 2021 American English
10789 Peter the Great Robert K. Massie 1980 American English
10921 The Economic Weapon Nicholas Mulder 2022 American English
11141 A Problem from Hell Samantha Power 2002 American English
11235 The Mote In God's Eye Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle 1974 American English
11254 Tiger At The Gates Jean Giraudoux 1935 French French
11663 War Margaret MacMillan 2020 Canadian English
11663 Thirteen Days In September Lawrence Wright 2014 American English
11663 The Sleepwalkers Christopher Clark 2012 British English
11663 A World On Fire Amanda Foreman 2011 British English
11663 The Assassins’ Gate George Packer 2005 American English
11663 Tumultuous Years Robert J. Donovan 1983 American English
11663 Years Of Upheaval Henry A. Kissinger 1982 American English
11663 Deadly Gambits Strobe Talbott 1984 American English
11663 All Fall Down Gary Sick 1985 American English
11663 Fdr Kenneth S. Davis 1972 American English
11663 Macmillan Alistair Horne 1988 American English
11663 How War Came Donald Cameron Watt 1989 British English
11798 The Uplift War David Brin 1987 American English
11941 Khrushchev William Taubman 2003 American English
11941 Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed William Cabell Bruce 1917 American English
11941 The Training of an American Burton J. Hendrick 1928 American English
11941 Theodore Roosevelt Henry F. Pringle 1931 American English
11941 John Hay Tyler Dennett 1933 American English
11941 Hamilton Fish Allan Nevins 1936 American English
11941 Woodrow Wilson, Life and Letters Ray Stannard Baker 1927 American English
11941 Forgotten First Citizen Margaret Clapp 1947 American English
11941 Roosevelt and Hopkins Robert E. Sherwood 1948 American English
11941 John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy Samuel Flagg Bemis 1949 American English
11941 Woodrow Wilson, American Prophet Arthur Walworth 1958 American English
11941 A Thousand Days Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr 1965 American English
11941 Memoirs George F. Kennan 1967 American English
11941 George F. Kennan John Lewis Gaddis 2011 American English
12326 Kissinger Walter Isaacson 1992 American English
12326 In Confidence Anatoly Dobrynin 1995 Russian English
12326 To End A War Richard Holbrooke 1998 American English
12326 The First World War John Keegan 1998 British English
12515 Alva Myrdal Sissela Bok 1991 Swedish Unknown
13306 The Final Reflection John M. Ford 1984 American English
13524 Perception And Misperception In International Politics Robert Jervis 1976 American English
13600 Saint Germain Ou La Négociation Francis Walder 1958 Belgian French
14192 Pax Britannica James Morris 1968 British English
14232 Excession Iain Banks 1996 British English
14232 Catherine The Great Robert K. Massie 2011 American English
14458 The Post American World Fareed Zakaria 2008 American English
14544 The Great Illusion Norman Angell 1910 British English
14599 Interventions Kofi Annan 2012 Ghanaian English
14677 The Life And Letters Of John Hay William Roscoe Thayer 1915 American English
14680 A Full Life Jimmy Carter 2015 American English
14710 History Of The World War Frank H. Simonds 1917 American English
14731 Destined For War Graham Allison 2017 American English
14762 The Histories Polybius -150 Greek Greek
14788 Eastern Approaches Fitzroy Maclean 1949 British English
14963 The Origins of the Second World War A. J. P. Taylor 1961 British English
14985 Russia Leaves the War George F. Kennan 1956 American English
14985 Winter's Orbit Everina Maxwell 2021 British English
15591 Belgium; A Personal Narrative Brand Whitlock 1919 American English