The Greatest Books of All Time on Exploitation

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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
26 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939 American English
183 The Jungle Upton Sinclair 1906 American English
283 Nostromo Joseph Conrad 1904 British English
324 Communist Manifesto Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels 1848 German German
328 Das Kapital Karl Marx 1867 German German
356 Germinal Émile Zola 1885 French French
492 The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Robert Tressell, Peter Miles 1914 British English
509 Sanctuary William Faulkner 1931 American English
550 Max Havelaar Multatuli 1860 Dutch Dutch
565 Amerika Franz Kafka 1927 Czech German
776 War with the Newts Karel Čapek 1936 Czech Czech
817 Rickshaw Boy Lao She 1936 Chinese Chinese
819 Burmese Days George Orwell 1934 British English
937 The Sea Wall Marguerite Duras 1950 French French
1132 Fanny Hill John Cleland 1748 British English
1514 Pelle The Conqueror Martin Andersen Nexø 1906 Danish Danish
1820 Fontamara Ignazio Silone 1933 Italian Italian
1915 A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works Jonathan Swift 1729 Irish English
1954 They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Horace McCoy 1935 American English
2019 The Death Ship B. Traven 1926 German German
2405 The City Of Marvels Eduardo Mendoza 1986 Spanish Spanish
2520 The American Way of Death Jessica Mitford 1963 American English
2790 The Weavers Gerhart Hauptmann 1892 German German
3081 Waiting For Lefty Clifford Odets 1935 American English
3083 Under the Skin Michel Faber 2000 British English
3930 Mean Spirit Linda Hogan 1990 American English
4093 Los Santos Inocentes Miguel Delibes 1981 Spanish Spanish
4140 Le Pauvre Christ De Bomba Mongo Beti 1956 French French
4140 Le Vieux Nègre Et La Médaille Ferdinand Oyono 1956 French French
4205 The Colonizer and the Colonized Albert Memmi 1957 French French
4260 Petals of blood Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1977 Kenyan English
4269 Who Can Be Happy And Free In Russia? Nikolay Nekrasov 1870 Russian Russian
4371 Irrlicht Und Feuer Max von der Grün 1963 German German
4396 Tobacco Dimitar Dimov 1951 Bulgarian Bulgarian
4575 The Black Brothers Lisa Tetzner 1941 German German
4668 Allah Is Not Obliged Ahmadou Kourouma 2000 French French
4795 The Good Person of Szechwan Bertolt Brecht 1943 German German
5266 Accumulation On A World Scale Samir Amin 1970 French French
6092 They Burn the Thistles Yaşar Kemal 1969 Turkish Turkish
6189 Guerrillas V. S. Naipaul 1975 Trinidadian English
6253 The Vortex José Eustacio Rivera 1924 Colombian Spanish
6266 Lowest Of The Low Günter Wallraff 1985 German German
6493 Life In The Iron Mills Rebecca Harding Davis 1861 American English
6623 Disappearance David Dabydeen 1993 Guyanese English
7216 A Cool Million Nathanael West 1934 American English
7722 Pig Tales Marie Darrieussecq 1996 French French
7820 Men Of Maize Miguel Angel Asturias 1949 Guatemalan Spanish
8004 Play Their Hearts Out George Dohrmann 2010 American English
8376 The Seed Is Mine Charles Van Onselen 1996 South African English
8567 Slavery by Another Name Douglas A. Blackmon 2008 American English
8816 Loot Tania James 2023 Unknown English
8989 Falling Free Lois McMaster Bujold 1988 American English
9249 Cities Of Salt Abd al-Rahman Munif 1984 Arabic Arabic
9324 Terra Nullius Sven Lindqvist 2007 Swedish Swedish
9604 Lenin's Kisses Yan Lianke 2003 Chinese Chinese
9642 Tram 83 Fiston Mwanza Mujila 2014 Congolese French
9808 America, América Greg Grandin 2009 Unknown English
9832 Sea of Poppies Amitav Ghosh 2008 Indian English
10039 Goat Days Benyamin 2008 Indian Malayalam
10100 The People In The Trees Hanya Yanagihara 2013 American English
10240 Race For Profit Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor 2019 American English
10811 The Gypsy Goddess Meena Kandasamy 2014 Indian English
10816 ‘Gapô Lualhati Bautista 1988 Filipino Filipino
10973 Pornography Andrea Dworkin 1981 American English
11065 Midnight Mao Dun 1933 Chinese Chinese
11231 The Real Lolita Sarah Weinman 2018 Unknown English
12259 Through The Arc Of The Rain Forest Karen Tei Yamashita 1990 American English
13279 The Adversary Michael Crummey 2024 Canadian English
13362 Toby Tyler James Otis 1881 American English
13600 The Soul Of Malaya H. Fauconnier 1930 French French
13600 The Savage State Georges Conchon French French
14210 The Word For World Is Forest Ursula K. Le Guin 1972 American English
14232 Ruined Lynn Nottage 2009 American English
14493 Cobalt Red Siddharth Kara 2023 Unknown English
14985 Iron Council China Miéville 2004 British English
16503 Coolie Mulk Raj Anand 1936 Indian English
15915 Labor’s Untold Story Richard Boyer, Herbert Morais 1955 American English
15915 Factories In The Fields Carey McWilliams 1939 American English
15915 America Is In The Heart Carlos Bulosan 1946 Filipino English
16544 Oil! Upton Sinclair 1927 American English
16602 Typhoon Joseph Conrad 1902 British English
16786 Yama Aleksandr Kuprin 1909 Russian Russian
17158 Medical Apartheid Harriet A. Washington 2007 American English
17158 Hogg Samuel R. Delany 1995 American English
17158 Delicious Foods James Hannaham 2015 American English
17088 Little Fuzzy H. Beam Piper 1962 American English
17158 Ma Rainey's Black Bottom August Wilson 1984 American English
17158 Gloria Branden Jacob-Jenkins 2015 American English
17158 The Girl Meridel Le Sueur 1978 American English
17158 The Slaver Salah al-Din Bujah Unknown Unknown
17158 Little Girls In Pretty Boxes Joan Ryan 1995 American English
17158 The Disaster Tourist Yun Ko-eun 2013 Korean Korean
17158 Congo David Van Reybrouck 2010 Belgian Dutch
17158 Wanting Tom Burgis 2021 Unknown English
17158 Svolení Vanessa Springora 2020 French French
17158 Thought To Exist In The Wild Derrick Jensen 2007 American English
17158 I Will Marry When I Want Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1977 Kenyan Gikuyu
17158 Blood In The Machine Brian Merchant 2023 Unknown English
17158 Cobalt Red Siddharth Kara 2023 Unknown English
17158 The House Of The Scorpion Nancy Farmer 2002 American English
17158 Saint Joan Of The Stockyards Bertolt Brecht 1931 German German
17158 Porno Irvine Welsh 2002 Scottish English
17158 The Laughing Monsters Denis Johnson 2014 American English
17136 The Anarchist Banker Pessoa 1922 Portuguese Portuguese