The Greatest Books of All Time on History

Click to learn how this list is calculated.

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.

View: List Grid Table
Filter by: Genres Dates Countries

Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
2562 Gospels Unknown 70 Multiple Greek
2563 The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology Edmund Husserl 1936 German German
2574 The Hedgehog and the Fox Isaiah Berlin 1953 British English
2575 Patriotic Gore Edmund Wilson 1962 American English
2585 A People's History of the United States Howard Zinn 1980 American English
2587 Red Shift Alan Garner 1973 British English
2594 Bid Time Return Richard Matheson 1975 American English
2612 Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant U. S. Grant 1885 American English
2619 To Live Yu Hua 1993 Chinese Chinese
2621 Main Currents in American Thought Vernon L. Parrington 1927 American English
2624 The Hero with a Thousand Faces Joseph Campbell 1949 American English
2626 Capital in the Twenty-First Century Thomas Piketty 2013 French French
2631 Old Glory Jonathan Raban 1981 British English
2634 Logical Investigations Edmund Husserl 1900 German German
2638 Fatherland Robert Harris 1992 British English
2642 Perpetual Peace Immanuel Kant 1795 German German
2645 The Nero Wolfe Series Rex Stout 1934 American English
2653 Suicide Emile Durkheim 1897 French French
2660 The Years with Laura Diaz Carlos Fuentes 1999 Mexican Spanish
2663 Debit And Credit Gustav Freytag 1855 German German
2665 The Mismeasure of Man Stephen Jay Gould 1981 American English
2672 Autobiographies William Butler Yeats 1926 Irish English
2678 H Is For Hawk Helen MacDonald 2014 British English
2685 The Managerial Revolution James Burnham 1941 American English
2691 The Book Of Margery Kempe Margery Kempe 1436 British Middle english
2698 Cod Mark Kurlansky 1997 American English
2701 Close Range Annie Proulx 1999 American English
2703 Natural History Pliny the Elder 77 Roman Latin
2705 Lost Children Archive Valeria Luiselli 2019 Mexican English
2710 Alan Turing Andrew Hodges 1983 British English
2716 The Great War and Modern Memory Paul Fussell 1975 American English
2725 The Discovery Of Slowness Sten Nadolny 1983 German German
2728 La légende des siècles Victor Hugo 1859 French French
2736 Philosophical Writings Novalis 1798 German German
2751 Satyagraha in South Africa Gandhi 1928 Indian Gujarati
2751 Dust Tracks on a Road Zora Neale Hurston 1942 American English
2751 My Fight for Birth Control Margaret Sanger 1931 American English
2751 Out Of Africa Karen Blixen 1937 Danish Danish
2768 Amsterdam Stories Nescio 1918 Dutch Dutch
2750 Decisive Moments in History Stefan Zweig 1927 Austrian German
2781 The Legend Of Thyl Ulenspiegel And Lamme Goedzak Charles de Coster 1867 Belgian French
2787 A Cultural History Of The Modern Age Egon Friedell 1927 Austrian English
2797 The Anatomy of Melancholy Robert Burton 1621 British English
2805 James Percival Everett 2024 American English
2806 The Art of Memory Frances A. Yates 1966 British English
2814 The Golden Apples Eudora Welty 1949 American English
2816 The Gnostic Gospels Elaine Pagels 1979 American English
2827 A Swiftly Tilting Planet Madeleine L'Engle 1978 American English
2836 Facing Mount Kenya Jomo Kenyatta 1938 Kenyan English
2841 Children of Crisis Robert Coles 1967 American English
2846 The Museum of Unconditional Surrender Dubravka Ugrešić 1997 Croatian Croatian
2875 River of Fire Qurratulain Hyder 1959 Indian Urdu
2877 The Patriot Antonio Fogazzaro 1906 Italian Italian
2878 Scouting For Boys Robert Baden-Powell 1908 British English
2880 The Diary of Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys 1825 British English
2887 John Keats Walter Jackson Bate 1963 American English
2897 Indigo Beverly Jenkins 1996 American English
2898 Moneyball Michael M. Lewis 2003 American English
2909 Villa Des Roses Willem Elsschot 1913 Belgian Dutch
2911 Tu Patricia Grace 2004 New Zealand English
2919 Barometer Rising Hugh MacLennan 1941 Canadian English
2921 Discourses Of Epictetus Epictetus -108 Greek Greek
2926 The Return Hisham Matar 2016 Libyan English
2935 The Better Angels Of Our Nature Steven Pinker 2011 American English
2936 The Two Cultures And The Scientific Revolution C. P. Snow 1959 British English
2952 Exit, Voice, And Loyalty Albert Hirschman 1970 American English
2956 Fugitive Pieces Anne Michaels 1996 Canadian English
2959 A Poem Without A Hero Anna Akhmatova 1960 Russian Russian
2960 Jefferson and His Time Dumas Malone 1948 American English
2961 Prison Notebooks Antonio Gramsci 1948 Italian Italian
2970 The Steppe Anton Chekhov 1888 Russian Russian
2982 Tent of Miracles Jorge Amado 1969 Brazilian Portuguese
2990 The Tale Of Igor's Campaign Unknown 1187 Russian Old east slavic
2991 Frederick Douglass David W. Blight 2018 American English
2992 A Book Of Memories Péter Nádas 1986 Hungarian Hungarian
2996 Childhood Leo Tolstoy 1852 Russian Russian
3000 The Rise of the West William H. McNeill 1963 American English
3002 The Savage Mind Claude Lévi-Strauss 1962 French French
3010 Wittgenstein's Mistress David Markson 1988 American English
3021 An Infamous Army Georgette Heyer 1937 British English
3050 Centennial James A. Michener 1974 American English
3051 Our Town Thornton Wilder 1938 American English
3053 National Episodes Benito Pérez Galdós 1873 Spanish Spanish
3064 The Secret River Kate Grenville 2005 Australian English
3066 Montaillou Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie 1975 French French
3069 Caramelo Sandra Cisneros 2002 American English
3072 The Armies of the Night Norman Mailer 1968 American English
3077 River Town Peter Hessler 2001 American English
3080 Waiting For Lefty Clifford Odets 1935 American English
3084 Diane Arbus Marvin Israel, Doon Arbus 1972 American English
3086 Summer in Baden-Baden Leonid Tsypkin 1980 Russian Russian
3087 The Marriage Of Cadmus And Harmony Roberto Calasso 1988 Italian Italian
3088 I, Rigoberta Menchú Rigoberta Menchú Tum 1983 Guatemalan Spanish
3089 Factory Girls Leslie T. Chang 2008 American English
3094 Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers Tom Wolfe 1970 American English
3097 Open City Teju Cole 2011 American English
3099 Why We Can't Wait Martin Luther King 1964 American English
3100 Ball Four Jim Bouton 1970 American English
3116 Principia Ethica George Edward Moore 1903 British English
3117 The White Album Joan Didion 1979 American English
3123 Carpentaria Alexis Wright 2006 Australian English
3126 Daisy Miller Henry James 1878 American English
3132 The Man Who Loved Dogs Leonardo Padura 2009 Cuban Spanish
3140 Great Heart James West Davidson, John Rugge 1988 American English
3141 Als Wär’s Ein Stück Von Mir Carl Zuckmayer 1966 German German
3148 All the President's Men Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein 1974 American English
3149 Chronicles Jean Froissart 1370 French Middle french
3155 Notes of a Native Son James Baldwin 1955 American English
3158 The Flounder Günter Grass 1977 German German
3167 Paris Trout Pete Dexter 1988 American English
3169 North Seamus Heaney 1975 Irish English
3175 My Early Life Winston Churchill 1930 British English
3183 Minor Detail Adania Shibli 2017 Palestinian Arabic
3186 The Quest For Corvo A. J. A. Symons 1934 British English
3186 Eothen Alexander William Kinglake 1844 British English
3192 The Age of Reason Thomas Paine 1794 British English
3194 The Best And The Brightest David Halberstam 1972 American English
3202 The Pillar And Ground Of The Truth Pavel Florensky 1914 Russian Russian
3206 The Prize Daniel Yergin 1991 American English
3211 Homo Deus Yuval Noah Harari 2015 Israeli Hebrew