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
4581 The Autobiography Of A Runaway Slave Miguel Barnet 1966 Cuban Spanish
4588 Columbine Dave Cullen 2009 American English
4589 The Nickel Boys Colson Whitehead 2019 American English
4597 The Fourth Dimension Yannis Ritsos 1972 Greek Greek
4597 Istorii Mircea Ciobanu 1977 Romanian Unknown
4609 Here Richard McGuire 2014 American English
4612 Civilisation Kenneth Clark 1969 British English
4614 Gulag Anne Applebaum 2003 American English
4617 Sociobiology E. O. Wilson 1975 American English
4620 Rising Tide John Barry 1997 American English
4623 The Party Richard McGregor 2010 Unknown English
4627 The Opium War Julia Lovell 2011 British English
4634 The Inability To Mourn Alexander Mitscherlich, Margarete Mitscherlich 1967 German German
4635 The Medici George Frederick Young 1910 Unknown English
4637 Darkmans Nicola Barker 2007 British English
4638 The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse Louise Erdrich 2001 American English
4643 Micrographia Robert Hooke 1665 British English
4652 The Forever War Dexter Filkins 2008 American English
4658 Lanterns on the Levee William Alexander Percy 1941 American English
4669 Beethoven's Letters Ludwig van Beethoven 1866 German German
4675 The Time of Our Singing Richard Powers 2003 American English
4681 The Autobiography of Mark Twain Mark Twain 1924 American English
4685 Extracts From Notes On The Bulgarian Uprisings Zahari Stoyanov 1884 Bulgarian Bulgarian
4687 The Cost Of Discipleship Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1937 German German
4687 Letters And Religion John Jay Chapman 1892 American English
4687 The Myth Of The Eternal Return Mircea Eliade 1949 Romanian French
4687 Christianity And Culture T. S. Eliot 1939 British English
4687 Enthusiasm Ronald Knox 1950 British English
4687 Christ And Culture H. Richard Niebuhr 1951 American English
4687 The Idea Of The Holy Rudolf Otto 1917 German English
4687 The Gospel Of Sri Ramakrishna Mahendranath Gupta 1902 Indian Bengali
4687 Major Trends In Jewish Mysticism Gershom Scholem 1929 German German
4718 I'll Take My Stand Twelve Southerners 1930 American English
4721 A History Of Religious Ideas, Volume 3 Mircea Eliade 1985 French French
4723 The Negro Caravan Sterling Allen Brown, Arthur Paul Davis, Ulysses Lee 1941 American English
4723 Of Time and the River Thomas Wolfe 1935 American English
4732 The Making of Homeric Verse Milman Parry 1971 American English
4733 The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation M. T. Anderson 2006 American English
4736 Shadow and ACT Ralph Ellison 1964 American English
4744 The Christian Tradition Jaroslav Pelikan 1971 American English
4745 Indaba, My Children Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa 1964 South African English
4751 The Omnivore's Dilemma Michael Pollan 2006 American English
4752 Origins of the New South C. Vann Woodward 1951 American English
4757 The Faculty of Useless Knowledge Yuri Dombrovsky 1976 Russian Russian
4760 Amiria Amiria Manutahi Stirling, Anne Salmond 1976 New Zealand English
4762 Vertigo W. G. Sebald 1990 German German
4764 400 Million Customers Carl Crow 1937 American English
4777 The Life Of Katherine Mansfield Anthony Alpers 1980 New Zealand English
4779 Helping Verbs Of The Heart Peter Esterhazy 1985 Hungarian Hungarian
4781 Pharsalia Lucan 61 Roman Latin
4801 The Confessions Of Lady Nijo Lady Nijo 1307 Japanese Japanese
4803 Dictee Theresa Hak Kyung Cha 1982 American English
4804 The Wolf Of Masada John Fredman 1978 Unknown English
4807 The Burden of Southern History C. Vann Woodward 1960 American English
4811 Gaia James Lovelock 1979 British English
4814 Dreamland Sam Quinones 2015 American English
4822 Thirteen Years After; A Great War Veteran Returns To The Old Battlefields Will R. Bird 1931 Canadian English
4829 Cataract Mykhaylo Osadchy 1976 Ukrainian Ukrainian
4829 Patterns of Childhood Christa Wolf 1976 German German
4845 The Last Quarter Of The Moon Chi Zijian 2005 Chinese English
4849 The Strange Death of Liberal England George Dangerfield 1935 British English
4850 Peking Story David Kidd 1960 American English
4852 The American Political Tradition Richard Hofstadter 1948 American English
4853 Melbourne David Cecil 1939 British English
4856 Der Tod Im Reisfeld Peter Scholl-Latour 1970 German German
4864 Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers Max Planck 1922 German German
4866 The Love Songs Of W.E.B. Dubois Honorée Fanonne Jeffers 2021 American English
4876 The Earl of Louisiana A. J. Liebling 1961 American English
4878 Massâlik Al Jinân Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba 1895 Senegalese Arabic
4887 The Secret Scripture Sebastian Barry 2008 Irish English
4897 The Book Of Fame Lloyd Jones 2000 New Zealand English
4899 The Redeemed Captive John Williams 1707 American English
4899 The Teachings Of Ptahhotep Ptahhotep -2400 Unknown Ancient egyptian
4899 Enūma Eliš Unknown -1100 Unknown Akkadian
4899 The Discovery Of Freedom Rose Wilder Lane 1943 American English
4899 Rules Of Civility And Decent Behavior In Company And Conversation George Washington 1748 American English
4899 The River War Winston Churchill 1899 British English
4899 The Autobiography Of Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge 1929 American English
4899 Notes Of Debates In The Federal Convention Of 1787 James Madison 1840 American English
4899 The Rough Riders Theodore Roosevelt 1899 American English
4899 The Unmaking Of A Mayor William F. Buckley, Jr 1966 American English
4899 King John William Shakespeare 1700 British English
4930 The Poorhouse Fair John Updike 1959 American English
4938 The Smile Of The Unknown Mariner Vincenzo Consolo 1976 Italian Italian
4949 Dark Money Jane Mayer 2016 American English
4977 God In Search Of Man Abraham Joshua Heschel 1955 American English
4980 The Hare with Amber Eyes Edmund de Waal 2010 British English
4983 Arctic Dreams Barry Lopez 1986 American English
4986 The Campaigns Of Alexander Arrian 1976 Greek Greek
4993 Utenzi Wa Vita Vya Uhuru Robert Bin Shabaan 1967 Tanzanian Swahili
5007 Against the Day Thomas Pynchon 2006 American English
5017 The Singapore Grip J. G. Farrell 1978 British English
5020 The King David Report Stefan Heym 1972 German German
5020 Hourglass Danilo Kiš 1972 Serbian Serbo-croatian
5035 Images And Symbols Mircea Eliade 1952 Romanian French
5036 Black Reconstruction In America W. E. B. Du Bois 1935 American English
5040 Black Hawk Down Mark Bowden 1999 American English
5044 Salome the Wandering Jewess George Vierick, Paul Eldridge 1930 American English
5040 Woman Natalie Angier 1999 American English
5040 The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out Richard P. Feynman 1999 American English
5087 Imperial Life in the Emerald City Rajiv Chandrasekaran 2006 American English
5089 On Food and Cooking Harold McGee 1984 American English
5090 Past Caring Robert Goddard 1986 British English
5093 Amity and Prosperity Eliza Griswold 2018 American English
5096 Where Do We Go From Here Martin Luther King 1967 American English
5105 Saving The Appearances Owen Barfield 1957 British English
5109 Dancing In Odessa Ilya Kaminsky 2004 Ukrainian English
5120 Baudolino Umberto Eco 2000 Italian Italian
5122 Creation Gore Vidal 1981 American English
5125 Killing The Black Body Dorothy E. Roberts 1997 American English
5131 All But My Life Gerda Weissmann Klein 1957 American English
5132 The Snows Of Yesteryear Gregor von Rezzori 1989 Austrian German
5132 Hitler Joachim Fest 1973 German German
5137 The Eloquent Peasant Unknown -1850 Egyptian Ancient egyptian
5146 Six Records Of A Floating Life Shen Fu 1809 Chinese Chinese
5152 Midnight In Peking Paul French 2012 British English
5164 Forgotten Kingdom Peter Goullart 1955 Russian English
5185 The Struggle For Mozambique Eduardo Mondlane 1969 Mozambican English
5189 German Romance Thomas Carlyle 1827 British English
5231 Holes Louis Sachar 1998 American English