The Greatest Books of All Time on Racism

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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
4865 The Love Songs Of W.E.B. Dubois Honorée Fanonne Jeffers 2021 American English
5035 Black Reconstruction In America W. E. B. Du Bois 1935 American English
5037 Eight Men Richard Wright 1961 American English
5095 Where Do We Go From Here Martin Luther King 1967 American English
5124 Killing The Black Body Dorothy E. Roberts 1997 American English
5250 The Strange Career of Jim Crow C. Vann Woodward 1955 American English
5324 If He Hollers Let Him Go Chester Himes 1945 American English
5404 Our Sister Killjoy Ama Ata Aidoo 1977 Ghanaian English
5487 Dark symphony James A. Emanuel (Comp), Theodore L. Gross 1968 American English
5529 The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store James McBride 2023 American English
5577 Women, Race, And Class Angela Davis 1981 American English
5588 Caste Isabel Wilkerson 2020 American English
5661 Bluebird, Bluebird Attica Locke 2017 American English
5691 All God’s Dangers Theodore Rosengarten 1974 American English
5706 The Sum Of Us Heather McGhee 2021 American English
5762 Dear Theo Irving Stone, Jean Stone 1937 American English
5762 Cotton Comes To Harlem Chester Himes 1965 American English
5862 The Big Sea Langston Hughes 1940 American English
5980 Chiefs Stuart Woods 1981 American English
6150 The Steam Pig James McClure 1971 South African English
6170 I Spit On Your Graves Boris Vian 1946 French French
6225 Kaffir Boy Mark Mathabane 1986 South African English
6241 The Chaneysville Incident David Bradley 1981 American English
6250 Assata Assata Shakur 1987 American English
6289 I Have A Dream Martin Luther King 1973 American English
6340 No No Boy John Okada 2024 American English
6487 The Keepers of the House Shirley Ann Grau 1964 American English
6493 A Voice From The South Anna Julia Cooper 1892 American English
6500 The Black Count Tom Reiss 2012 French English
6531 Born A Crime Trevor Noah 2016 South African English
6561 The Tortilla Curtain T. Coraghessan Boyle 1995 American English
6578 Indian Horse Richard Wagamese 2012 Canadian English
6664 How The Word Is Passed Clint Smith 2021 American English
6681 Blacktop Wasteland S. A. Cosby 2020 American English
6717 The Conjure Man Dies Rudolph Fisher 1932 American English
6733 Jubilee Margaret Walker 1966 American English
6835 There Are No Children Here Alex Kotlowitz 1991 American English
6837 Yellowface R. F. Kuang 2023 American English
6920 The Reluctant Fundamentalist Mohsin Hamid 2007 Pakistani English
6922 Necropolitics Achille Mbembe 2003 French French
7127 Blanche Passes Go Barbara Neely 2000 American English
7193 Jasper Jones Craig Silvey 2009 Australian English
7215 The Short Fiction Charles W. Chesnutt 1899 American English
7215 Lonely Crusade Chester Himes 1947 American English
7576 The Racial Contract Charles W. Mills 1997 American English
7594 The Reformatory Tananarive Due 2023 American English
7679 Master Slave Husband Wife Ilyon Woo 2023 Unknown English
7735 The Wanderers Richard Price 1974 American English
7890 Love Toni Morrison 2003 American English
7903 Move Your Shadow Joseph Lelyveld 1986 American English
7996 Amiable With Big Teeth Claude McKay 2017 American English
8075 Nurture Shock Po Bronson, Ashley Merryman 2008 American English
8102 I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem Maryse Condé 1986 Guadeloupean French
8106 Ramona Helen Hunt Jackson 1884 American English
8265 Coming Of Age In Mississippi Anne Moody 1968 American English
8288 Night They Missed The Horror Show Joe R. Lansdale 1988 American English
8302 The Secret Life Of Bees Sue Monk Kidd 2001 American English
8314 The Bottoms Joe R. Lansdale 2000 American English
8351 The Farming of Bones Edwidge Danticat 1998 Haitian English
8375 The Seed Is Mine Charles Van Onselen 1996 South African English
8382 Guard of Honor James Gould Cozzens 1948 American English
8422 The Green Mile Stephen King 1996 American English
8457 March John Lewis 2013 American English
8556 The Tall Man Chloe Hooper 2008 Australian English
8566 Slavery by Another Name Douglas A. Blackmon 2008 American English
8573 Let The Trumpet Sound Stephen B. Oates 1982 American English
8602 A Fever In The Heartland Timothy Egan 2023 American English
8646 The Raj Quartet Paul Scott 1976 British English
8697 Inner City Blues Paula L. Woods 1999 American English
8700 Blacklist Sara Paretsky 2003 American English
8703 W.E.B. Du Bois David Levering Lewis 2000 American English
8742 Biko Donald Woods 1978 South African English
8744 All The Sinners Bleed S. A. Cosby 2023 American English
8777 Proud Shoes Pauli Murray 1956 American English
8825 Harlem Gallery M. B. Tolson 1965 American English
8844 Zeitoun Dave Eggers 2009 American English
8868 African Stories Doris May Lessing 1964 British English
8881 Hard Revolution George P. Pelecanos 2004 American English
8896 Are Prisons Obsolete? Angela Davis 2003 American English
8935 The White Girl Tony Birch 2019 Australian English
8938 Memorial Drive Natasha Trethewey 2020 American English
9026 The Other Americans Laila Lalami 2019 Moroccan English
9052 Built From The Fire Victor Luckerson 2023 Unknown English
9191 How To Slowly Kill Yourself And Others In America Kiese Laymon 2013 American English
9238 Ella Baker And The Black Freedom Movement Barbara Ransby 2003 American English
9261 Malcolm X Manning Marable 2011 American English
9299 My Place Sally Morgan 1987 Australian English
9313 Exterminate All The Brutes Sven Lindqvist 1992 Swedish Swedish
9322 Terra Nullius Sven Lindqvist 2007 Swedish Swedish
9505 God Bless The Child Kristin Hunter 1964 American English
9514 Joe Turner's Come And Gone August Wilson 1984 American English
9531 Black Water Rising Attica Locke 2009 American English
9548 Poems Of Nicolás Guillén Nicolás Guillén 1972 Cuban Spanish
9568 Custer Died For Your Sins Vine DeLoria, Jr. 1969 American English
9697 The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes Langston Hughes 1994 American English
9705 Black Skin, White Masks Frantz Fanon 1952 French French
9754 Carry Me Home Diane McWhorter 2001 American English
9803 Dear Martin Nic Stone 2017 American English
9857 This Child's Gonna Live Sarah E. Wright 1969 American English
9912 Your House Will Pay Steph Cha 2019 American English
9927 Streamers David Rabe 1976 American English
9939 Crusade For Justice Ida B. Wells 1970 American English
9939 Daddy Was A Number Runner Louise Meriwether 1970 American English
9972 If You Come Softly Jacqueline Woodson 1998 American English
10020 Race Matters Cornel West 1993 American English
10037 The Future In The Present C. L. R. James 1977 Trinidadian English
10077 One Person, No Vote Carol Anderson 2018 American English
10077 To Shape A New World Tommie Shelby, Brandon M. Terry 2018 American English
10224 The Trees Percival Everett 2021 American English
10236 Race For Profit Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor 2019 American English
10236 Biased Jennifer Eberhardt 2019 American English
10381 Another Day In The Colony Chelsea Watego 2021 Unknown English
10450 Homeland Elegies Ayad Akhtar 2020 American English
10450 The Life Of Langston Hughes Arnold Rampersad 1986 American English
10522 Montana 1948 Larry Watson 1993 American English
10535 Colonize This! Daisy Hernandez, Bushra Rehman 2002 Multiple English
10549 A Book Of Scars William Shaw 2015 British English
10610 The 272 Rachel L. Swarns 2023 Unknown English
10723 The Amalgamation Polka Stephen Wright 2006 American English
10785 The Dead Are Arising Les Payne 2020 American English