The Greatest Nonfiction Books of All Time

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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
885 A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz 2002 Israeli Hebrew
903 Wild Swans Jung Chang 1991 Chinese English
905 Coming of Age in Samoa Margaret Mead 1928 American English
906 Up from Slavery Booker T. Washington 1901 American English
909 The Warmth Of Other Suns Isabel Wilkerson 2010 American English
911 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Max Weber 1905 German German
913 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass 1845 American English
923 The World Of Yesterday Stefan Zweig 1942 Austrian German
934 The Theory of the Leisure Class Thorstein Veblen 1899 American English
939 Émile Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1762 French French
941 Collected Essays of George Orwell George Orwell 1968 British English
945 Sexual Behavior in the Human Male Alfred C. Kinsey 1948 American English
952 Two Treatises of Government John Locke 1689 British English
958 The Periodic Table Primo Levi 1975 Italian Italian
965 Eminent Victorians Lytton Strachey 1918 British English
969 Storm of Steel Ernst Jünger 1920 German German
979 The Worst Journey in the World Apsley Cherry-Garrard 1922 British English
985 Mythology Edith Hamilton 1942 American English
993 Essays of E. B. White E. B. White 1977 American English
1007 The Death and Life of Great American Cities Jane Jacobs 1961 American English
1011 Mere Christianity C. S. Lewis 1952 British English
1018 Principia Mathematica Isaac Newton 1687 British Latin
1019 The Interior Castle Teresa of Avila 1588 Spanish Spanish
1020 Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joan Didion 1968 American English
1027 Secondhand Time Svetlana Alexievich 2013 Belarusian Russian
1030 Meditations on First Philosophy Rene Descartes 1641 French Latin
1032 The Epistle To The Romans Karl Barth 1919 Swiss German
1037 The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston 1976 American English
1038 Cosmos Carl Sagan 1980 American English
1041 On War Carl Von Clausewitz 1832 German German
1045 Selected Essays of T. S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1932 British English
1049 Works and Days Hesiod -700 Greek Ancient greek
1051 The Phenomenon Of Man Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 1955 French French
1052 Treatise on Radioactivity Marie Curie 1910 French French
1054 Letters from a Stoic Seneca 64 Roman Latin
1058 Memories, Dreams, Reflections Carl Jung 1963 Swiss German
1059 The True History of the Conquest of New Spain Bernal Díaz del Castillo 1632 Spanish Spanish
1060 Fun Home Alison Bechdel 2006 American English
1068 The Seven Storey Mountain Thomas Merton 1948 American English
1075 The Kon-Tiki Expedition Thor Heyerdahl 1948 Norwegian Norwegian
1076 Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres Henry Adams 1904 American English
1077 Cider with Rosie Laurie Lee 1959 British English
1082 The Abolition of Man C. S. Lewis 1943 British English
1098 Seven Years in Tibet Heinrich Harrer 1952 Austrian German
1104 Maus Art Spiegelman 1980 American English
1122 A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawking 1988 British English
1123 The Symposium Plato -385 Greek Ancient greek
1138 The Unwomanly Face Of War Svetlana Alexievich 1985 Russian Russian
1139 The Unquiet Grave Cyril Connolly 1944 British English
1141 The Golden Bough James George Frazer 1890 British English
1147 Dialectic Of Enlightenment Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer 1944 German German
1150 Witness Whittaker Chambers 1952 American English
1156 Apology Plato -389 Greek Ancient greek
1159 Eichmann in Jerusalem Hannah Arendt 1963 German English
1162 Essays Francis Bacon 1597 British English
1163 The Road to Oxiana Robert Byron 1937 British English
1168 The Diaries Franz Kafka 1948 Czech German
1170 Capitalism and Freedom Milton Friedman 1962 American English
1172 My Family And Other Animals Gerald Durrell 1956 British English
1180 Annals Cornelius Tacitus 109 Roman Latin
1188 The Quest for Community Robert Nisbet 1953 American English
1189 A Writer's Diary Virginia Woolf 1953 British English
1190 The Spirit Of The Laws Montesquieu 1748 French French
1192 The Politics Aristotle -350 Greek Ancient greek
1204 Nickel And Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich 2001 American English
1207 How to Win Friends and Influence People Dale Carnegie 1936 American English
1209 Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates 2015 American English
1212 A General Introduction to Psycho-Analysis Sigmund Freud 1920 Austrian German
1224 The Snow Leopard Peter Matthiessen 1978 American English
1226 What Is To Be Done? Vladimir Il’ich Lenin 1902 Russian Russian
1244 The Travels of Marco Polo Marco Polo 1300 Italian Old french
1245 Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell 1933 British English
1246 Danube Claudio Magris 1986 Italian Italian
1248 The Conservative Mind Russell Kirk 1953 American English
1252 Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari 2011 Israeli Hebrew
1257 Lives of the Caesars Suetonius 121 Roman Latin
1259 The Female Eunuch Germaine Greer 1970 Australian English
1265 On Writing Stephen King 2000 American English
1276 The Feynman Lectures on Physics Richard P. Feynman 1963 American English
1283 Cybernetics Norbert Wiener 1948 American English
1295 Phenomenology of Mind G. W. F. Hegel 1807 German German
1297 Poetics Aristotle -322 Greek Greek
1301 The Road Less Traveled M. Scott Peck 1978 American English
1315 Voices from Chernobyl Svetlana Alexievich 1997 Belarusian Russian
1320 God and Man at Yale William F. Buckley, Jr 1951 American English
1326 The Compleat Angler Izaak Walton 1653 British English
1327 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding John Locke 1689 British English
1342 The Principles of Psychology William James 1890 American English
1345 The Naked Ape Desmond Morris 1967 British English
1357 I and Thou Martin Buber 1923 Austrian German
1358 The Principle Of Hope Ernst Bloch 1954 German German
1363 The Liberal Imagination Lionel Trilling 1950 American English
1364 Fragments Heraclitus -500 Greek Ancient greek
1366 The Adversary Emmanuel Carrère 2000 French French
1384 Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond 1997 American English
1387 Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter 1979 American English
1389 On The Orator Marcus Tullius Cicero -55 Roman Latin
1392 Evicted Matthew Desmond 2016 American English
1393 The Business of Living Cesare Pavese 1952 Italian Italian
1400 The Great Railway Bazaar Paul Theroux 1975 American English
1403 The Outsider Colin Wilson 1956 British English
1406 The Life of Charlotte Brontë Elizabeth Gaskell 1857 British English
1412 The Constitution of Liberty Friedrich von Hayek 1960 Austrian English
1415 Life on the Mississippi Mark Twain 1883 American English
1416 Rights of Man Thomas Paine 1791 British English
1426 Mars Fritz Zorn 1977 Swiss German
1433 Random Family Adrian Nicole LeBlanc 2003 American English
1434 R. E. Lee Douglas Southall Freeman 1934 American English
1436 Letters to a Young Poet Rainer Maria Rilke 1929 Austrian German
1446 The Tongue Set Free Elias Canetti 1977 Austrian German
1447 Minima Moralia Theodor Adorno 1951 German German
1449 Corpus Aristotelicum Aristotle -322 Greek Greek
1452 History And Class Consciousness Georg Lukacs 1923 German German
1459 The City of God Augustine 413 Roman Latin
1462 An American Dilemma Gunnar Myrdal 1944 Swedish English
1470 Wind, Sand and Stars Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1939 French French
1474 Chaos James Gleick 1987 American English
1475 Lettres de madame de Sévigné Marie de Rabutin-Chantal marquise de Sévigné 1671 French French
1477 An Essay on the Principle of Population Thomas Robert Malthus 1798 British English
1489 Abraham Lincoln, Speeches And Letters Abraham Lincoln 1907 American English