The Greatest Books of All Time on Totalitarianism

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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
212 Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler 1940 British German
321 We Yevgeny Zamyatin 1924 Russian Russian
959 A Tomb for Boris Davidovich Danilo Kiš 1976 Serbian Serbo-croatian
1451 The Children of Men P. D. James 1992 British English
1748 The Fox Was Ever The Hunter Herta Müller 1992 German German
1802 Kallocain Karin Boye 1940 Swedish Swedish
2132 The Man in the High Castle Philip K. Dick 1962 American English
2638 Fatherland Robert Harris 1992 British English
3224 Forever Flowing Vasily Grossman 1970 Russian Russian
4093 The Flaw Antonis Samarakis 1965 Greek Greek
4509 The Palace Of Dreams Ismail Kadare 1981 Albanian Albanian
4525 Living In Truth Vaclav Havel 1986 Czech Czech
5637 The Alteration Kingsley Amis 1976 British English
5778 My Happy Days In Hell György Faludy 1962 Hungarian Hungarian
6683 The Opium Of The Intellectuals Raymond Aron 1955 French French
6713 The Land Of Green Plums Herta Müller 1994 German German
6795 An Analysis Of The Communist System Milovan Djilas 1957 Serbian Serbo-croatian
7040 Hope Against Hope Nadezhda Mandelstam 1970 Russian Russian
7215 It Can't Happen Here Sinclair Lewis 1935 American English
8062 The Future Is History Masha Gessen 2017 Russian English
8572 Fear Itself Ira Katznelson 2013 American English
9219 On Tyranny Timothy Snyder 2017 American English
9654 Terror Y Utopía Karl Schlögel 2018 German German
10059 Die Totalitäre Erfahrung Karl Dietrich Bracher 1987 German German
11576 Inside The Whale And Other Essays George Orwell 1940 British English
12325 Judge On Trial Ivan Klima 1991 Czech Czech
14180 Facial Justice L. P. Hartley 1960 British English
14984 Hitler And Stalin Alan Bullock 1991 British English
15829 The Cunning Of History Richard L. Rubenstein 1975 American English
15903 Berlin Diary William L. Shirer 1941 British English
17125 How Democracies Perish Jean François Revel 1983 French French
17125 Limbo Bernard Wolfe 1952 American English