The Greatest Books of All Time on History

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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
1550 Njal's Saga Iceland 1280 Icelandic Old norse
1552 Waterland Graham Swift 1983 British English
1557 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard 1974 American English
1564 G. John Berger 1972 British English
1569 Empire of the Sun J. G. Ballard 1984 British English
1573 The Story Of My Experiments With Truth Mahatma Gandhi 1927 Indian Gujarati
1580 The Struggle for Europe Chester Wilmot 1952 British English
1581 The Civilizing Process Norbert Elias 1939 German German
1582 Quicksand Nella Larsen 1928 American English
1583 The Civilization Of The Renaissance In Italy Jacob Burckhardt 1860 Swiss German
1586 Gijsbrecht Van Aemstel Joost van den Vondel 1637 Dutch Dutch
1588 The Guns of August Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1962 American English
1590 Germania Cornelius Tacitus 98 Roman Latin
1595 The Forbidden Kingdom Jan Jacob Slauerhoff 1932 Dutch Dutch
1601 Three Treatises Martin Luther 1520 German German
1606 White Fang Jack London 1906 American English
1615 Giants in the Earth Ole Edvart Rolvaag 1927 Norwegian Norwegian
1616 Under the Yoke Ivan Vazov 1888 Bulgarian Bulgarian
1617 Ways Of Seeing John Berger 1972 British English
1621 Good-Bye to All That Robert Graves 1929 British English
1623 Corregidora Gayl Jones 1975 American English
1624 The Mediterranean And The Mediterranean World In The Age Of Philip Ii Fernand Braudel 1949 French French
1627 Dora Bruder Patrick Modiano 1997 French French
1638 Postwar Tony Judt 2005 British English
1641 Disraeli Robert Blake 1966 British English
1643 Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt 1996 American English
1645 Shogun James Clavell 1975 British English
1647 Phaedo Plato -379 Greek Ancient greek
1654 O Pioneers! Willa Cather 1913 American English
1656 Arrowsmith Sinclair Lewis 1925 American English
1659 The Americans Robert Frank 1959 American English
1663 The Making of the English Working Class E. P. Thompson 1963 British English
1664 Eclipse of the Crescent Moon Géza Gárdonyi 1899 Hungarian Hungarian
1670 The Emigrants Vilhelm Moberg 1949 Swedish Swedish
1672 Pulphead John Jeremiah Sullivan 2011 American English
1673 Penguin Island Anatole France 1908 French French
1676 Time and Again Jack Finney 1970 American English
1677 A Theory of Justice John Rawls 1971 American English
1678 A Time To Be Born Dawn Powell 1942 American English
1683 The Life Written By Himself the Archpriest Avvakum 1666 Russian Russian
1701 The New Jim Crow Michelle Alexander 2010 American English
1704 Celestial Harmonies Peter Esterhazy 2000 Hungarian Hungarian
1706 The Principia Mathematica Alfred North Whitehead, Bertrand Russell 1910 British English
1713 Encyclopédie Denis Diderot 1751 French French
1714 Go Down, Moses William Faulkner 1942 American English
1721 Pragmatism William James 1907 American English
1724 Logbook George Seferis 1940 Greek Greek
1727 Down There J. K. Huysmans 1891 French French
1728 The Voyage of the Beagle Charles Darwin 1839 British English
1733 My Childhood Maxim Gorky 1913 Russian Russian
1746 Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion David Hume 1779 British English
1750 The Making of the Atomic Bomb Richard Rhodes 1986 American English
1763 Small Is Beautiful E. F. Schumacher 1973 British English
1764 Tales Of The Hasidim Martin Buber 1949 German German
1777 Flowering Nettle Harry Martinson 1935 Swedish Swedish
1778 The Strudlhof Steps Heimito von Doderer 1951 German German
1779 Rob Roy Sir Walter Scott 1817 British English
1784 Marks of Identity Juan Goytisolo 1966 Spanish Spanish
1794 My Past And Thoughts Alexander Herzen 1861 Russian Russian
1803 The Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1912 British English
1804 Cartucho And My Mother's Hands Nellie Campobello 1931 Mexican Spanish
1805 A Hero Born Jin Yong 1957 Chinese Chinese
1811 A Time Of Gifts Patrick Leigh Fermor 1977 British English
1817 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot 2010 American English
1822 Small Lives Pierre Michon 1984 French French
1824 The Engineer of Human Souls Josef Škvorecký 1977 Czech Czech
1825 Studies In The History Of The Renaissance Walter Pater 1873 British English
1834 Histories Cornelius Tacitus 100 Roman Latin
1835 Sophie's World Jostein Gaarder 1991 Norwegian Norwegian
1844 The Sixth Extinction Elizabeth Kolbert 2014 American English
1850 On Germany Germaine de Staël 1810 French French
1855 The Order of Things Michel Foucault 1966 French French
1864 The Jewish War Flavius Josephus 75 Jewish Greek
1866 The Lion of Flanders Hendrik Conscience 1838 Belgian Dutch
1870 The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters Gustave Flaubert 1921 French French
1871 Brief Lives John Aubrey 1898 British English
1872 To the Finland Station Edmund Wilson 1940 American English
1873 And the Band Played On Randy Shilts 1987 American English
1874 The Proud Tower Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1966 American English
1877 Cold Mountain Charles Frazier 1997 American English
1878 East Goes West Younghill Kang 1937 American English
1881 The Machiavellians James Burnham 1943 American English
1883 Chariots Of The Gods Erich Von Däniken 1968 German German
1884 The Looming Tower Lawrence Wright 2006 American English
1886 Poems, New And Collected, 1957 1997 Wislawa Szymborska 1998 Polish Polish
1890 Obasan Joy Kogawa 1981 Canadian English
1892 A Sand County Almanac Aldo Leopold 1949 American English
1896 Smoking and Health Surgeon General 1964 American English
1901 The Power Broker Robert Caro 1974 American English
1904 The Diviners Margaret Laurence 1974 Canadian English
1908 Smallbone Deceased Michael Gilbert 1950 British English
1912 World's End T. C. Boyle 1987 American English
1913 Mencius Mencius -300 Chinese Classical chinese
1916 Group Portrait with Lady Heinrich Böll 1971 German German
1920 Mary Of Nijmegen Unknown 1475 Dutch Middle dutch
1921 Anglo Saxon Attitudes Angus Wilson 1956 British English
1923 The Conquest Of Gaul Gaius Julius Caesar -51 Roman Latin
1924 Pages From The Goncourt Journal Edmond de Goncourt 1887 French French
1925 The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano Olaudah Equiano 1789 African English
1926 The Spectator Joseph Addison 1711 British English
1928 Ten Days That Shook the World John Reed 1919 American English
1929 The Frontier in American History Frederick J. Turner 1920 American English
1931 The Way Of The World Nicolas Bouvier 1963 French French
1933 On Self Reliance Ralph Waldo Emerson 1841 American English
1937 Ask The Dust John Fante 1939 American English
1943 The Pursuit of the Millennium Norman Cohn 1957 British English
1952 The Idea of History R. G. Collingwood 1946 British English
1958 Let the Great World Spin Colum McCann 2009 Irish English
1959 Discipline and Punish Michel Foucault 1975 French French
1960 The Provincial Letters Blaise Pascal 1656 French French
1966 Truth And Method Hans-Georg Gadamer 1960 German German
1974 The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010 American English
1976 Towards A New Architecture Le Corbusier 1923 French French
1981 West With the Night Beryl Markham 1942 British English
1982 The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne Gilbert White 1789 British English
1985 Black Elk Speaks John G. Neihardt 1932 American English
1987 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Oliver Sacks 1985 British English
1995 Say Nothing Patrick Radden Keefe 2018 American English
1997 An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding David Hume 1748 Scottish English
1998 Ben-Hur Lew Wallace 1880 American English