According the the University of California at Berkley, there are over 65 million book titles worldwide. This piece lists books that greatly affected and changed the way people think over the centuries.
Let's begin?
The Art of War is a strategy book based on Chinese warfare and military thoughts. Written by Sun Tzu during the 6th century B.C., this immensely significant book remains one of the premier works of military strategy of all time.
Since the 1980s, the book’s influence has expanded beyond the military field and its lessons are applied to corporate culture, law, and politics.
Karl Marx wrote 22 books but arguably the most well-read is The Communist Manifesto. Published in 1848, the work is considered one of the world’s most influential political manuscripts.
Manifesto was commissioned by the Communist League and details the League’s purposes and outlines Marx’s theories of past and present class struggles. Marx was a relatively unknown figure during his lifetime but his political and philosophical ideas began to influence workers and world leaders after his death.
Frederick Engels shares the author credit on Manifesto but it is considered to be primarily Marx’s work.
This work by John Maynard Keynes started a reform referred to as the Keynesian Revolution.
Keynes believed in the power of markets but advocated interventionist government policy, by which the government would use fiscal and monetary measures to mitigate the adverse effects of economic recessions, depressions and booms.
The book challenged conventional thoughts on classic economics, and introduced concepts still in use today (and probably more so tomorrow).
Guerrilla Warfare by Ernesto Che Guevara was published in 1961 and discusses revolutionary movements in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Guevara was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, politician, and guerrilla leader.
The book asserts that guerrilla warfare is the most advantageous way to fight totalitarian regimes where political opposition is difficult. The essays in the book detail the struggles in seven South American countries that were inspired by Guevara’s theories.
This book was written in the early 1500s by Martin Luther, a German cleric. This powerful tome is regarded as the primary catalyst for the Protestant Reformation. Luther’s theses in the book show his dissatisfaction with some of the clergy’s actions.
His main complaint was the church’s practice of indulgence, the removal of punishment for sins for which a person has already been forgiven. Because of the theological debate that Luther instigated, Christianity branched into other denominations including Lutheran, Reformed, and Anabaptist.
Luther penned 14 books but one of his most read ones to this day is this, his shortest.
Charles Darwin stirred up controversy when this book was published in 1859 and the theory of evolution continues to be a hot topic today. The book explores Darwin’s scientific theory that populations of animals and plants evolve over time and through generations via a process of natural selection.
Darwin’s reasoning on evolutionary theories includes survival of the fittest, adaptation and the struggle for existence. Origin of Species continues to provoke heated arguments on philosophical, religious, and scientific grounds.
The Republic by Plato is the oldest book in this list, written in approximately 380 B.C. It is considered even today to be one of the most influential works of philosophy and political theory. In Greek, Republic means the character of a political community and the fictional book begins with a portrayal of Utopia or an Ideal State, a perfect community.
From there it goes on to discuss the forms of government and their pros and cons as well as a rationale for political decay. The concept of justice is also touched on. Along with Socrates, Plato’s mentor, and Aristotle, Plato’s protégé, Plato helped create the basis of Western Philosophy that exists today.
This work was composed by an Italian diplomat and a philosopher in the early 1500s, Niccolò Machiavelli. He wrote many books including Discourse on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy, History of Florence and The Art of War (see above), as well as a bunch of plays, poetry, and novels.
The book details how a Prince (or any ruler, in this case) can keep control of his kingdom and how to maintain power. The underlying theme is the distinction between realism and idealism, contrasting sharply with the idealism of Plato and Aristotle, and his discussion on the use of force to keep the status quo.
A Room of One’s Own is based on lectures Virginia Woolf gave in 1928 to two women’s colleges. The book debates whether women are capable of producing works as great as those by men. Woolf claims that the lack of literature written by women at the time was not due to an inherent inability but to relentless social and educational chauvinism.
Some believe Woolf is the inventor of modern feminist criticism. The title of the book is derived from Woolf’s opinion that ‘a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.’
This first major work of feminist literature was published in 1949 and was written by Simone de Beauvoir. The book delves into the treatment of women throughout history and debates the difference between the terms gender and sex.
De Beauvoir argues that throughout history women have been considered the ‘other’ sex as if they are a deviation of the ‘normal’ male sex.
The Second Sex was originally written in French and there has been a tremendous amount of criticism that the translation into English is inaccurate and that the philosophical concepts de Beauvoir discusses were mistranslated.
Of course this is a subjective list.
There are hundreds of books that greatly impacted the world and when I get to write 10,000 words on this topic, the book you think I should have included will be on the list.
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