The Greatest Books of All Time on Society

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
5941 The Turning Point Fritjof Capra 1982 American English
5974 Data From The Decade Of The Sixties Thanassis Valtinos 1989 Greek Greek
5980 1491 Charles C. Mann 2005 American English
6001 The Dialectic Of Sex Shulamith Firestone 1970 American English
6007 A History Of Greece To The Death Of Alexander The Great John Bagnell Bury 1900 British English
6007 The Story Of My Life Giacomo Casanova 1822 Italian French
6007 Waiting For Nothing And Other Writings Tom Kromer 1935 American English
6007 My Feminine Brother Marina Tsvetaeva 1923 Russian Russian
6007 Note Conjointe Charles Péguy 1914 French French
6007 Testimony Charles Reznikoff 1965 American English
6007 The Golden Fruits Nathalie Sarraute 1963 French French
6007 Things Seen Victor Hugo 1887 French French
6007 Three Women Robert Musil 1924 Austrian German
6007 Which Moped With Chrome Plated Handlebars At The Back Of The Yard? Georges Perec 1966 French French
6093 Good Company Frances Partridge 1977 British English
6100 The Heart's Invisible Furies John Boyne 2017 Irish English
6101 The History of Rome Livy -27 Roman Latin
6131 Negroland Margo Jefferson 2015 American English
6133 The Fool In Christ Gerhart Hauptmann 1910 German German
6135 L'hiver De Force Réjean Ducharme 1973 Canadian French
6156 Women As Lovers Elfriede Jelinek 1975 Austrian German
6170 The Tower Uwe Tellkamp 2008 German German
6198 Bezzeg Az én Időmben Klára Fehér 1966 Hungarian Hungarian
6215 Doppelganger Naomi Klein 2023 Canadian English
6229 Happening Annie Ernaux 2000 French French
6251 Great Apes Will Self 1997 British English
6274 Cold Nights Ba Jin 1947 Chinese Chinese
6312 Burial Rites Hannah Kent 2013 Australian English
6327 The New Kings Of Nonfiction Ira Glass 2007 American English
6336 A Preface to Morals Walter Lippmann 1929 American English
6341 China Pop Jianying Zha 1995 Unknown English
6375 The Promise of American Life Herbert Croly 1909 American English
6383 A Voyage Round The World Georg Forster 1777 German German
6426 The Lonely Crowd David Riesman 1950 American English
6429 Theory And History Of Ideological Production Juan Carlos Rodríguez 1993 Spanish Spanish
6440 The Gaudy Image William Talsman 1958 American English
6464 Things We Lost In The Fire Mariana Enríquez 2016 Argentinian Spanish
6472 The Day Of Judgment Salvatore Satta 1977 Italian Italian
6481 The Stoic Theodore Dreiser 1947 American English
6494 The Story Of Avis Elizabeth Stuart Phelps 1877 American English
6502 Cosima Grazia Deledda 1937 Italian Italian
6505 The Coquette Hannah Webster Foster 1797 American English
6515 The Control Revolution James R. Beniger 1986 American English
6518 A Frozen Woman Annie Ernaux 1981 French French
6575 Combats Pour L'histoire Lucien Febvre 1953 French French
6580 Venice Jan Morris 1960 British English
6587 Crystal Boys Pai Hsien-yung 1983 Chinese Chinese
6605 I Wonder As I Wander Langston Hughes 1956 American English
6607 Pavilion Of Women Pearl S. Buck 1946 American English
6624 The Life of Insects Victor Pelevin 1993 Russian Russian
6630 Csárdás Diane Pearson 1975 British English
6648 The Builders Giorgos Heimonas 1996 Greek Greek
6672 Future Shock Alvin Toffler 1980 American English
6684 The Opium Of The Intellectuals Raymond Aron 1955 French French
6705 Collected essays Aldous Huxley 1958 British English
6718 Track Ernst Bloch 1949 German Unknown
6738 The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup Susan Orlean 2001 American English
6749 De Advocaat Van De Hanen A. F. Th. van der Heijden 1990 Dutch Dutch
6758 Breasts And Eggs Mieko Kawakami 2008 Japanese Japanese
6763 The World's Illusion Jakob Wassermann 1920 German German
6766 Odd Girls And Twilight Lovers Lillian Faderman 1991 American English
6768 Peter Parley's Universal History Samuel Goodrich 1837 American English
6858 Hell Has No Limits José Donoso 1965 Chilean Spanish
6866 Loupežník Karel Čapek 1988 Czech Czech
6868 Collected Poems Philip Larkin 1988 British English
6916 Other Fires Maxim Gorky 1900 Russian Unknown
6920 S.C.U.M. Manifesto Valerie Solanas 1967 American English
6970 Six Studies In Communism Arthur Koestler, Richard Crossman 1960 Multiple English
6970 The End Of Ideology Daniel Bell 1960 American English
6997 Panegyric Guy Debord 1989 French French
7005 The Collected Plays Of Noel Coward Noel Coward 1979 British English
7020 Corinne Madame de Staël 1807 French French
7056 Golden Age Wang Xiaobo 1997 Chinese Chinese
7107 Technopoly Neil Postman 1992 American English
7145 Báječná Léta Pod Psa Michal Viewegh 1992 Czech Czech
7162 Saved Edward Bond 1965 British English
7199 Parallel Lives Phyllis Rose 1983 American English
7218 The Scarlet Plague Jack London 1912 American English
7218 The Prose Works Of Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift 1701 Irish English
7218 Poems Of Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift 1701 Irish English
7218 The Journals Of James Boswell James Boswell 1791 British English
7218 The Works Of Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson 1787 British English
7218 Roman Sonnets Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli 1830 Italian Italian
7218 The Red Notebook Benjamin Constant 1804 French French
7218 Essays Matthew Arnold 1865 British English
7218 Gryll Grange Thomas Love Peacock 1861 British English
7218 Unto This Last John Ruskin 1860 British English
7218 The Duke's Children Anthony Trollope 1880 British English
7218 Plays Oscar Wilde 1900 Irish English
7218 Essays Of Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson 1892 Scottish English
7218 Tales Gottfried Keller 1856 Swiss German
7218 A Family Chronicle Sergei Aksakov 1856 Russian Russian
7218 From The Other Shore Alexander Herzen 1850 Russian Russian
7218 The Frigate Pallada Ivan Goncharov 1858 Russian Russian
7218 Journals Ralph Waldo Emerson 1820 American English
7218 Notebooks Nathaniel Hawthorne 1868 American English
7218 The Awkward Age Henry James 1899 British English
7218 Short Novels And Tales Henry James 1891 American English
7218 Naked Masks Luigi Pirandello 1922 Italian Italian
7218 Corydon André Gide 1924 French French
7218 Count D'orgel's Ball Raymond Radiguet 1923 French French
7218 Major Critical Essays George Bernard Shaw 1930 Irish English
7218 Back To Methuselah George Bernard Shaw 1921 Irish English
7218 Studies In Classic American Literature D. H. Lawrence 1923 British English
7218 Some Versions Of Pastoral William Empson 1935 British English
7218 Plays And Stories Arthur Schnitzler 1929 Austrian German
7218 Reminiscences Of Tolstoy, Chekhov, And Andreev Maxim Gorky 1920 Russian Russian
7218 Nervous People And Other Satires Mikhail Zoshchenko 1927 Russian Russian
7218 Poems Of Vachel Lindsay Vachel Lindsay 1913 American English
7218 Vein Of Iron Ellen Glasgow 1935 American English
7218 The Years Virginia Woolf 1937 British English
7218 A Princesa De Clèves Madame de La Fayette 1678 French French
7218 The Road To The City Natalia Ginzburg 1942 Italian Italian
7605 Sin Remedio Antonio Caballero 1984 Colombian Spanish
7617 The Heretic Miguel Delibes 1998 Spanish Spanish
7613 The Short Stories Katherine Mansfield 1945 New Zealander English
7638 Soulless Gail Carriger 2009 American English
7656 A Better World Than This Marie Joseph 1982 British English
7657 Paterson William Carlos Williams 1946 American English
7666 The Flowering of New England Van Wyck Brooks 1936 American English