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Top 100 non-fiction books of all time

The top 100 non-fiction books of all time, ranked by everyone, one head-to-head pick at a time.

  1. The Prince Niccolò Machiavelli · 1532
  2. The Art of War Sun Tzu · 5th century BC
  3. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy Karl Marx · 1867
  4. The Communist Manifesto Karl Marx · 1848
  5. Encyclopædia Britannica Andrew Bell · 1768
  6. Mein Kampf Adolf Hitler · 1924
  7. The Gulag Archipelago Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn · 1973
  8. Diary of Anne Frank Anne Frank · 1947
  9. Leviathan Thomas Hobbes · 1651
  10. Thus Spoke Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche · 1883
  11. Man's Search for Meaning Viktor Frankl · 1946
  12. Histories Herodotus · c. 440 BC
  13. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion Matvei Golovinski · 1903
  14. On the Origin of Species Charles Darwin · 1859
  15. Rich Dad Poor Dad Robert Kiyosaki · 1997
  16. Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica Isaac Newton · 1687
  17. Parallel Lives Plutarch · 110
  18. Symposium Plato · c. 385 BC
  19. How to Win Friends and Influence People Dale Carnegie · 1936
  20. The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith · 1776
  21. Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle · c. 340 BC
  22. Gesta Danorum Saxo Grammaticus · 1300
  23. Clash of Civilizations Samuel P. Huntington · 1996
  24. Federalist Papers Alexander Hamilton · 1788
  25. The Social Contract Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1762
  26. Augustan History Flavius Vopiscus · 4th century
  27. Kojiki Hieda no Are · 712
  28. The Second Sex Simone de Beauvoir · 1949
  29. A Room of One's Own Virginia Woolf · 1929
  30. Apology Plato · c. 395 BC
  31. The Myth of Sisyphus Albert Camus · 1942
  32. Organon Aristotle · 4th century BC
  33. Gray's Anatomy Henry Gray · 1858
  34. Elements Euclid · c. 300 BC
  35. The End of History and the Last Man Francis Fukuyama · 1990
  36. Persepolis Marjane Satrapi · 2000
  37. Politics Aristotle · 4th century BC
  38. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Mary Wollstonecraft · 1792
  39. Commentarii de Bello Gallico Julius Caesar · 58–49 BC
  40. The 48 Laws of Power Robert Greene · 2000
  41. The Golden Bough James George Frazer · 1890
  42. A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawking · 1988
  43. The History of the Kings of Britain Geoffrey of Monmouth · 1136
  44. Utopia Thomas More · 1516
  45. Gay Science Friedrich Nietzsche · 1881
  46. On War Carl von Clausewitz · 1832
  47. The God Delusion Richard Dawkins · 2006
  48. Timaeus Plato · c. 360 BC
  49. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Yuval Noah Harari · 2011
  50. Two Treatises of Government John Locke · 1689
  51. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig · 1974
  52. Critique of Pure Reason Immanuel Kant · 1781
  53. The Limits to Growth Donella Meadows · 1972
  54. Walden Henry David Thoreau · 1854
  55. Being and Nothingness Jean-Paul Sartre · 1943
  56. On Liberty John Stuart Mill · 1859
  57. Phaedo Plato · c. 360 BC
  58. SCUM Manifesto Valerie Solanas · 1967
  59. Long Day's Journey into Night Eugene O'Neill · 1956
  60. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen Covey · 1989
  61. Thirty-Six Stratagems Anonymous
  62. A Moveable Feast Ernest Hemingway · 1964
  63. History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides · c. 400 BC
  64. The Feminine Mystique Betty Friedan · 1963
  65. The World as Will and Representation Arthur Schopenhauer · 1819
  66. Annals Tacitus · c. 116 AD
  67. The Jewish War Josephus · c. 75 AD
  68. Natural History Pliny the Elder · 77 AD
  69. Silent Spring Rachel Carson · 1962
  70. Poetics Aristotle · c. 335 BC
  71. Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond · 1997
  72. Encyclopédie Denis Diderot · 1751
  73. Confessions Augustine of Hippo · c. 400
  74. Records of the Grand Historian Sima Qian · c. 90 BC
  75. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon · 1776
  76. Canon of Medicine Avicenna · 1025
  77. A Modest Proposal Jonathan Swift · 1729
  78. What Is to Be Done? Vladimir Lenin · 1901
  79. God Is Not Great Christopher Hitchens · 2007
  80. The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins · 1976
  81. Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt · 1996
  82. Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter · 1979
  83. The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History Michael H. Hart · 2026
  84. Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung Mao Zedong · 1964
  85. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Max Weber · 1905
  86. Emile, or On Education Jean-Jacques Rousseau · 1762
  87. Maus Art Spiegelman · 1980
  88. Beyond Good and Evil Friedrich Nietzsche · 1886
  89. Metaphysics Aristotle · 4th century BC
  90. The Travels of Marco Polo Rustichello da Pisa · 1298
  91. The Black Book of Communism Stéphane Courtois · 1997
  92. The Green Book Muammar Gaddafi · 1975
  93. The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte Karl Marx · 1852
  94. Phaedrus Plato · c. 370 BC
  95. Geography Strabo · 20
  96. Meditations on First Philosophy René Descartes · 1641
  97. Autobiography of a Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda · 1946
  98. In Cold Blood Truman Capote · 1966
  99. The Shock Doctrine Naomi Klein · 2007
  100. De architectura Vitruvius · c. 20 BC

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