The Greatest Books of All Time on Ideology

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
94 Demons Fyodor Dostoevsky 1872 Russian Russian
172 Man's Fate Andre Malraux 1933 French French
212 Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler 1940 British German
440 The Origins of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt 1951 German English
448 Homage to Catalonia George Orwell 1938 British English
470 The Secret Agent Joseph Conrad 1907 British English
535 Red Cavalry Isaac Babel 1926 Russian Russian
659 Mythologies Roland Barthes 1957 French French
716 Mein Kampf Adolf Hitler 1925 German German
763 The Case of Comrade Tulayev Victor Serge 1949 French French
787 Quotations from Chairman Mao Mao 1964 Chinese Chinese
922 The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen 2015 American English
930 The Seven Madmen Roberto Arlt 1929 Argentinian Spanish
957 The Little World Of Don Camillo Giovanni Guareschi 1948 Italian Italian
959 A Tomb for Boris Davidovich Danilo Kiš 1976 Serbian Serbo-croatian
1081 The War of the End of the World Mario Vargas Llosa 1981 Peruvian Spanish
1131 Ashes and Diamonds Jerzy Andrzejewski 1948 Polish Polish
1150 Witness Whittaker Chambers 1952 American English
1321 God and Man at Yale William F. Buckley, Jr 1951 American English
1452 History And Class Consciousness Georg Lukacs 1923 German German
1722 The Joke Milan Kundera 1967 Czech Czech
1794 My Past And Thoughts Alexander Herzen 1861 Russian Russian
1856 Under Western Eyes Joseph Conrad 1911 British English
1881 The Machiavellians James Burnham 1943 American English
1928 Ten Days That Shook the World John Reed 1919 American English
2169 Bread And Wine Ignazio Silone 1936 Italian Italian
2206 The Gate of Heavenly Peace Jonathan Spence 1981 American English
2278 The Twelve Alexander Blok 1918 Russian Russian
2419 The Age of Jackson Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr 1945 American English
2481 The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich William L. Shirer 1960 American English
2557 Alamut Vladimir Bartol 1938 Slovenian Slovene
2961 Prison Notebooks Antonio Gramsci 1948 Italian Italian
3131 The Man Who Loved Dogs Leonardo Padura 2009 Cuban Spanish
3504 Heavy Wings Jie Zhang 1981 Chinese Chinese
3513 Poems, 1913 1956 Bertolt Brecht 1976 German German
3530 Behemoth Franz Neumann 1942 German English
3604 Limonov Emmanuel Carrère 2011 French French
3637 Memoirs Of A Revolutionist Vera Figner 1920 Russian Russian
3637 The Gods Will Have Blood Anatole France 1912 French French
3637 The Crusaders Stefan Heym 1948 German English
3637 The Language Of The Third Reich Victor Klemperer 1947 German German
3637 Child Of The Revolution Wolfgang Leonhard 1955 German German
3637 The Questionnaire Ernst von Salomon 1951 German German
3806 Critique Of Cynical Reason Peter Sloterdijk 1983 German German
3821 Lenin's Tomb David Remnick 1993 American English
3869 Die Skeptische Generation Helmut Schelsky 1957 German German
3896 The Meaning of Hitler Sebastian Haffner 1978 German German
3953 The End of History and the Last Man Francis Fukuyama 1992 American English
3954 Η κάθοδος των εννιά Thanassis Valtinos 1963 Greek Greek
3954 Κατά Σαδδουκαίων Michalis Katsaros 1953 Greek Greek
3954 Η Χαμένη Άνοιξη Stratis Tsirkas 1946 Greek Greek
4511 The Aula Hermann Kant 1965 German German
4760 Baptism Yang Jiang 1988 Chinese Chinese
4785 The Princess Casamassima Henry James 1886 British English
4857 Der Tod Im Reisfeld Peter Scholl-Latour 1970 German German
5311 The Adams Jefferson Letters Lester J. Cappon 1959 American English
5319 The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte Karl Marx 1852 German German
5438 Communism In Spain In The Franco Era Jorge Semprún 1980 Spanish Spanish
5497 Signs Of Fire Jorge de Sena 1979 Portuguese Portuguese
5599 Bloodlands Timothy Snyder 2010 American English
5703 A Place of Greater Safety Hilary Mantel 1992 British English
5741 One Of Us Asne Seierstad 2013 Norwegian Norwegian
5745 Taebaek Sanmaek Jo Jung-rae 1986 South Korean Korean
5897 The Plough And The Stars Sean O'Casey 1926 Irish English
5972 Data From The Decade Of The Sixties Thanassis Valtinos 1989 Greek Greek
6278 Citizens Simon Schama 1989 British English
6343 In Hitler's Germany Bernt Engelmann 1986 German English
6428 Theory And History Of Ideological Production Juan Carlos Rodríguez 1993 Spanish Spanish
6451 Orthokostá Thanassis Valtinos 1994 Greek Greek
6461 Never Did The Fire Diamela Eltit 2022 Chilean Spanish
6488 This Is The Hour Lion Feuchtwanger 1951 German German
6526 The Private Life of Chairman Mao Li Zhi-Sui 1994 Chinese English
6611 The Russian Revolution Richard Pipes 1990 American English
6657 Aus Dem Wörterbuch Des Unmenschen Dolf Sternberger 1989 German German
6683 The Opium Of The Intellectuals Raymond Aron 1955 French French
6717 My Life Leon Trotsky 1930 Russian Russian
6737 Political Fictions Joan Didion 2001 American English
6795 An Analysis Of The Communist System Milovan Djilas 1957 Serbian Serbo-croatian
6969 Six Studies In Communism Arthur Koestler, Richard Crossman 1960 Multiple English
6969 The End Of Ideology Daniel Bell 1960 American English
7034 The Politics Of Cultural Despair Fritz Stern 1961 American English
7216 Danton's Death Georg Buchner 1835 German German
7216 Man's Hope Andre Malraux 1937 French French
7995 We The Living Ayn Rand 1936 American English
8571 Main Currents Of Marxism Leszek Kolakowski 1976 Polish English
8574 Fear Itself Ira Katznelson 2013 American English
8584 The Road To Calvary Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy 1921 Russian Russian
8875 Yawning Heights Alexander Sinowjew 1976 Russian Russian
8973 The Society Of The Spectacle Guy Debord 1967 French French
9316 Exterminate All The Brutes Sven Lindqvist 1992 Swedish Swedish
9369 The Conspiracy Paul Nizan 1938 French French
9520 Memoirs Raymond Aron 1983 French French
9658 Terror Y Utopía Karl Schlögel 2018 German German
9735 Europe Central William T. Vollmann 2005 American English
9758 Fire in the Lake Frances FitzGerald 1972 American English
9950 Retaguardia Roja Fernando del Rey 2019 Spanish Spanish
10039 Maoism Julia Lovell 2019 British English
10064 Die Totalitäre Erfahrung Karl Dietrich Bracher 1987 German German
10071 The Silences Of Hammerstein Hans Magnus Enzensberger 2008 German German
10194 Che Guevara Jon Lee Anderson 1997 American English
10246 The New Science of Politics Eric Voegelin 1952 Austrian English
10309 Episodes Of The Cuban Revolutionary War Che Guevara 1963 Argentinian Spanish
10309 The Social History Of Art Arnold Hauser 1951 German German
10309 Memoirs Of A Revolutionary Victor Serge 1951 French French
10309 The Russian Revolution N. N. Sukhanov 1922 Russian Russian
10309 History Of The Russian Revolution Leon Trotsky 1930 Russian Russian
10401 For Marx Louis Althusser 1965 French French
10454 War Trash Ha Jin 2004 Chinese English
10752 A Perfect Peace Amos Oz 1982 Israeli Hebrew
11036 Cinema And History Marc Ferro 1977 French French
11141 The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture David Brion Davis 1966 American English
11206 Ninety Three Victor Hugo 1874 French French
11412 The Egyptian, Syrian, And Iraqi Revolutions Hanna Batatu 1984 American Unknown
11601 The Dissertation R. M. Koster 1975 Unknown English
11631 Political And Social Writings Cornelius Castoriadis 1988 French French
11663 The Assassins’ Gate George Packer 2005 American English
11663 A Machine That Would Go Of Itself Michael Kammen 1987 American English
11663 Fatal Discord Michael Massing 2018 Unknown English
11890 Whittaker Chambers Sam Tanenhaus 1997 American English
11941 The Pope and Mussolini David I. Kertzer 2014 American English