The Greatest Books of All Time on Leadership

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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
52 Lord of the Flies William Golding 1954 British English
70 The Aeneid Virgil -19 Roman Latin
100 Dune Frank Herbert 1965 American English
123 Memoirs of Hadrian Marguerite Yourcenar 1951 French French
137 Lord Jim Joseph Conrad 1900 British English
152 The Prince Niccolo Machiavelli 1532 Italian Italian
224 Watership Down Richard Adams 1972 British English
286 The Once and Future King T. H. White 1958 British English
334 Parallel Lives Plutarch 100 Greek Greek
379 The Second World War Winston Churchill 1948 British English
391 Death Comes for the Archbishop Willa Cather 1927 American English
413 The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer 1948 American English
483 The Civil War Shelby Foote 1958 American English
541 The Seven Pillars of Wisdom T. E. Lawrence 1926 British English
563 Panchatantra Unknown -300 Multiple Sanskrit
596 The History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides -410 Greek Ancient greek
613 The Persians Aeschylus -471 Greek Ancient greek
614 Facundo Domingo Faustino Sarmiento 1845 Argentinian Spanish
621 Analects Confucius -479 Chinese Classical chinese
624 The Histories of Herodotus Herodotus -450 Greek Ancient greek
713 The Killer Angels Michael Shaara 1974 American English
726 The Caine Mutiny Herman Wouk 1951 American English
733 Arrow of God Chinua Achebe 1964 Nigerian English
783 Anabasis Xenophon -390 Greek Ancient greek
787 Quotations from Chairman Mao Mao 1964 Chinese Chinese
802 Romance of the Three Kingdoms Guanzhong Luo 1400 Chinese Chinese
828 Lost Horizon James Hilton 1933 British English
830 The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon 1776 British English
835 The Art of War Sun Tzu -500 Chinese Classical chinese
906 Up from Slavery Booker T. Washington 1901 American English
921 Master and Commander Patrick O'Brian 1969 British English
1041 On War Carl Von Clausewitz 1832 German German
1081 The War of the End of the World Mario Vargas Llosa 1981 Peruvian Spanish
1108 Chaka Thomas Mofolo 1925 South African Sesotho
1180 Annals Cornelius Tacitus 109 Roman Latin
1207 How to Win Friends and Influence People Dale Carnegie 1936 American English
1226 What Is To Be Done? Vladimir Il’ich Lenin 1902 Russian Russian
1257 Lives of the Caesars Suetonius 121 Roman Latin
1350 Seven Against Thebes Aeschylus -467 Greek Ancient greek
1434 R. E. Lee Douglas Southall Freeman 1934 American English
1489 Abraham Lincoln, Speeches And Letters Abraham Lincoln 1907 American English
1580 The Struggle for Europe Chester Wilmot 1952 British English
1588 The Guns of August Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1962 American English
1590 Germania Cornelius Tacitus 98 Roman Latin
1645 Shogun James Clavell 1975 British English
1705 The Sea-Wolf Jack London 1904 American English
1834 Histories Cornelius Tacitus 100 Roman Latin
1881 The Machiavellians James Burnham 1943 American English
1971 Parable of the Talents Octavia E. Butler 1998 American English
2150 The Conference Of The Birds Attar Neyshabouri 1177 Persian Persian
2198 The Last Lion William Manchester 1983 American English
2282 Crowds And Power Elias Canetti 1960 German German
2300 Journals Meriwether Lewis, William Clark 1804 American English
2338 Master of the Senate Robert Caro 2002 American English
2339 Personal History Katharine Graham 1997 American English
2345 The Well Of The Unicorn Fletcher Pratt 1948 American English
2358 August 1914 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1971 Russian Russian
2381 Battle Cry of Freedom James M. McPherson 1988 American English
2390 The Face of Battle John Keegan 1976 British English
2423 Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer 1997 American English
2449 Henry V William Shakespeare 1600 British English
2498 The South Pole Roald Amundsen 1912 Norwegian Norwegian
2500 Rebellion In The Backlands Euclides da Cunha 1902 Brazilian Portuguese
2522 The Passage Of Power Robert Caro 2012 American English
2559 Pharaoh Bolesław Prus 1895 Polish Polish
2605 Ender's Game Orson Scott Card 1985 American English
2610 What It Takes Richard Ben Cramer 1992 American English
2612 Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant U. S. Grant 1885 American English
2714 Coriolanus William Shakespeare 1608 British English
2878 Scouting For Boys Robert Baden-Powell 1908 British English
2888 Hadji Murat Leo Tolstoy 1912 Russian Russian
2917 Legend David Gemmell 1984 British English
2949 Redwall Brian Jacques 1986 British English
3085 Dragonflight Anne McCaffrey 1968 American English
3113 The Life of Andrew Jackson Marquis James 1937 American English
3175 My Early Life Winston Churchill 1930 British English
3194 The Best And The Brightest David Halberstam 1972 American English
3239 Hms Ulysses Alistair MacLean 1955 Scottish English
3248 Memoirs of Cardinal De Retz Cardinal de Retz 1717 French French
3296 Cyropaedia Xenophon -370 Greek Ancient greek
3301 Baburnama Zahir Uddin Muhammad Babur 1530 Baburnama Chagatai turkish
3307 Henry IV, Part I William Shakespeare 1597 British English
3381 The Shadow Line Joseph Conrad 1917 British English
3392 Napoleon Emil Ludwig 1926 German German
3398 King Rat James Clavell 1962 British English
3407 The Great Indian Novel Shashi Tharoor 1989 Indian English
3456 Profiles in Courage John F. Kennedy 1956 American English
3472 The Armada Garrett Mattingly 1959 American English
3476 The Campaign of the Marne Sewell Tyng 1927 American English
3497 The Thin Red Line James Jones 1962 American English
3525 Strange Defeat Marc Bloch 1946 French French
3550 Gloriana Michael Moorcock 1978 British English
3557 The Black Jacobins C. L. R. James 1938 British English
3609 The Knights Aristophanes -424 Greek Ancient greek
3638 The Crusaders Stefan Heym 1948 German English
3638 Stalingrad Theodor Plievier 1948 German German
3638 Rinaldo Rinaldini, The Robber Captain Christian August Vulpius 1799 German German
3823 The Edge of the Sword Charles De Gaulle 1959 French French
3861 The History Of The Yorubas Reverend Samuel Johnson 1921 Nigerian English
3897 The Meaning of Hitler Sebastian Haffner 1978 German German
3953 The Memoirs Of General Makriyannis Makriyannis 1907 Greek Greek
4157 The Assemblywomen Aristophanes -391 Greek Ancient greek
4205 Ghana Kwame Nkrumah 1957 Ghanaian English
4220 Iphigenia At Aulis Euripides -405 Greek Ancient greek
4309 Count Belisarius Robert Graves 1938 British English
4364 The Anatomy Of A Moment Javier Cercas 2009 Spanish Spanish
4411 Sharpe's Eagle Bernard Cornwell 1981 British English
4417 A Bright Shining Lie Neil Sheehan 1988 American English
4475 Soundjata Ou L'épopée Mandingue Djibril Tamsir Niane 1960 French French
4488 The Bears' Famous Invasion Of Sicily Dino Buzzati 1945 Italian Italian
4507 Truman David McCullough 1992 American English
4577 No Ordinary Time Doris Kearns Goodwin 1994 American English
4667 Saint Joan George Bernard Shaw 1923 Irish English
4853 Melbourne David Cecil 1939 British English
4899 The River War Winston Churchill 1899 British English
4899 The Rough Riders Theodore Roosevelt 1899 American English
4932 The Terror Dan Simmons 2007 American English
5014 High Citadel Desmond Bagley 1965 British English
5015 The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt Edmund Morris 1979 American English
5039 Black Hawk Down Mark Bowden 1999 American English