The Greatest Books of All Time on Industrialization

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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
144 Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence 1913 British English
183 The Jungle Upton Sinclair 1906 American English
185 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
196 Lady Chatterley's Lover D. H. Lawrence 1928 British English
227 Women in Love D. H. Lawrence 1920 British English
356 Germinal Émile Zola 1885 French French
406 Ragtime E. L. Doctorow 1975 American English
439 North and South Elizabeth Gaskell 1855 British English
487 Rainbow D.H. Lawrence 1915 British English
531 The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith 1776 Scottish English
934 The Theory of the Leisure Class Thorstein Veblen 1899 American English
995 Dombey and Son Charles Dickens 1846 British English
1006 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Alan Sillitoe 1958 British English
1065 La Bête humaine Émile Zola 1890 French French
1179 Living Henry Green 1929 British English
1230 The Magnificent Ambersons Booth Tarkington 1918 American English
1365 Nectar in a Sieve Kamala Markandaya 1954 Indian English
1415 Life on the Mississippi Mark Twain 1883 American English
1450 Mary Barton Elizabeth Gaskell 1848 British English
1629 Point Counter Point Aldous Huxley 1928 British English
1663 The Making of the English Working Class E. P. Thompson 1963 British English
1772 Hard Times Charles Dickens 1854 British English
1874 The Proud Tower Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1966 American English
2070 The Age of Reform Richard Hofstadter 1955 American English
2106 Desert Solitaire Edward Abbey 1968 American English
2296 The Limits To Growth Donella H. Meadows 1972 American English
2305 Stockholm series Per Anders Fogelström 1960 Swedish Swedish
2362 Sybil Benjamin Disraeli 1845 British English
2403 The City Of Marvels Eduardo Mendoza 1986 Spanish Spanish
2442 How Green Was My Valley Richard Llewellyn 1939 British English
2458 Shirley Charlotte Brontë 1849 British English
2541 The Artamonov Business Maxim Gorky 1925 Russian Russian
2961 Au Bonheur Des Dames Émile Zola 1883 French French
3293 Looking Backward, 2000 1887 Edward Bellamy 1888 American English
3427 The Great Transformation Karl Polanyi 1944 Canadian English
3638 Der Moderne Kapitalismus Werner Sombart 1902 German German
3638 Les Rougon Macquart Émile Zola 1871 French French
3834 The Obsolescence Of Man Günther Anders 1956 German German
4371 Irrlicht Und Feuer Max von der Grün 1963 German German
4478 The Economy of Cities Jane Jacobs 1969 American English
4497 The Unsettling of America Wendell Berry 1977 American English
4611 Complete Short Stories D. H. Lawrence 1950 British English
4718 I'll Take My Stand Twelve Southerners 1930 American English
4849 The Strange Death of Liberal England George Dangerfield 1935 British English
6002 Travaux Georges Navel 1945 French French
6212 The Monkey Wrench Gang Edward Abbey 1975 American English
6329 Religion And The Rise Of Capitalism R. H. Tawney 1926 British English
6379 The Principles Of Scientific Management Frederick Winslow Taylor 1911 American English
6379 The Condition Of The Working Class In England Friedrich Engels 1845 German German
6491 Life In The Iron Mills Rebecca Harding Davis 1861 American English
6512 The Control Revolution James R. Beniger 1986 American English
6552 The Bottom Of The Harbor Joseph Mitchell 1959 American English
6918 English Society In The Eighteenth Century Roy Porter 1982 British English
6995 Contours of American History William Appleman Williams 1961 American English
7215 Poems Of D. H. Lawrence D. H. Lawrence 1913 British English
8020 The Rise And Fall Of American Growth Robert J. Gordon 2016 American English
8068 The Rise Of American Civilization Charles A. Beard, Mary Ritter Beard 1927 American English
8209 China Shakes The World James Kynge 2006 British English
8653 The Dollmaker Harriette Arnow 1954 American English
9517 Nations And Nationalism Ernest Gellner 1983 British English
9884 Man And The Natural World Keith Thomas 1983 British English
10633 The Road to Wigan Pier George Orwell 1937 British English
10784 The First Tycoon T. J. Stiles 2009 American English
10944 Selected Poems Philip Levine 1984 American English
11061 Midnight Mao Dun 1933 Chinese Chinese
12724 The Shock of the New Robert Hughes 1980 Australian English
12725 A Little Hatred Joe Abercrombie 2019 British English
13359 London Labour and the London Poor Henry Mayhew 1851 British English
13359 Past And Present Thomas Carlyle 1843 British English
13599 Civilization Georges Duhamel 1918 French French
14212 Enriching The Earth Vaclav Smil 2001 Canadian English
14367 A History Of The American People Woodrow Wilson 1902 American English
14373 Smoke And Steel Carl Sandburg 1920 American English
14488 A Certain Rich Man William Allen White 1909 American English
14943 Player Piano Kurt Vonnegut 1952 American English
14984 Iron Council China Miéville 2004 British English
14979 The Complete Poems Of Carl Sandburg Carl Sandburg 1970 American English
15725 Passionate Journey Frans Masereel 1919 Belgian German
15823 The Cunning Of History Richard L. Rubenstein 1975 American English
15898 The Acquisitive Society R. H. Tawney 1920 British English
15898 Factories In The Fields Carey McWilliams 1939 American English
15898 The Machine In The Garden Leo Marx 1964 American English
15898 Technics And Civilization Lewis Mumford 1934 American English
15875 Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1954 British English
16532 Alton Locke Charles Kingsley 1850 British English
16667 The Daughter In Law D. H. Lawrence 1913 British English
17120 A History of the United States Edward Channing 1905 American English
17120 In the Days of McKinley Margaret Leech 1959 American English
17120 The Visible Hand Alfred D. Chandler, Jr 1977 American English
17120 Entropy Jeremy Rifkin, Ted Howard 1980 American English
17120 German History 1800–1918 Thomas Nipperdey 1983 German German
17120 The Great Divergence Kenneth Pomeranz 2000 American English
17120 Design John Heskett 2005 British English
17120 Labor And Monopoly Capital Harry Braverman 1974 American English
17120 Third Wave Alvin Toffler 1980 American English
17120 The Wealth And Poverty Of Nations David S. Landes 1998 American English
17074 The Age Of Revolution, 1789 1848 Eric Hobsbawm 1962 British English
17120 Blood In The Machine Brian Merchant 2023 Unknown English
17120 Wasteland Oliver Franklin‑Wallis 2023 Unknown English
17120 Material World Ed Conway 2023 Unknown English
17120 Saint Joan Of The Stockyards Bertolt Brecht 1931 German German