the 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the 20th century

100 Best Nonfiction.

The Board’s List

1. THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS by Henry Adams

2. THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE by William James

3. UP FROM SLAVERY by Booker T. Washington

4. A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN by Virginia Woolf

5. SILENT SPRING by Rachel Carson

6. SELECTED ESSAYS, 1917-1932 by T. S. Eliot

7. THE DOUBLE HELIX by James D. Watson

8. SPEAK, MEMORY by Vladimir Nabokov

9. THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE by H. L. Mencken

10. THE GENERAL THEORY OF EMPLOYMENT, INTEREST, AND MONEY by John Maynard Keynes

11. THE LIVES OF A CELL by Lewis Thomas

12. THE FRONTIER IN AMERICAN HISTORY by Frederick Jackson Turner

13. BLACK BOY by Richard Wright

14. ASPECTS OF THE NOVEL by E. M. Forster

15. THE CIVIL WAR by Shelby Foote

16. THE GUNS OF AUGUST by Barbara Tuchman

17. THE PROPER STUDY OF MANKIND by Isaiah Berlin

18. THE NATURE AND DESTINY OF MAN by Reinhold Niebuhr

19. NOTES OF A NATIVE SON by James Baldwin

20. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALICE B. TOKLAS by Gertrude Stein

21. THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE by William Strunk and E. B. White

22. AN AMERICAN DILEMMA by Gunnar Myrdal

23. PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell

24. THE MISMEASURE OF MAN by Stephen Jay Gould

25. THE MIRROR AND THE LAMP by Meyer Howard Abrams

26. THE ART OF THE SOLUBLE by Peter B. Medawar

27. THE ANTS by Bert Hoelldobler and Edward O. Wilson

28. A THEORY OF JUSTICE by John Rawls

29. ART AND ILLUSION by Ernest H. Gombrich

30. THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH WORKING CLASS by E. P. Thompson

31. THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK by W.E.B. Du Bois

32. PRINCIPIA ETHICA by G. E. Moore

33. PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION by John Dewey

34. ON GROWTH AND FORM by D’Arcy Thompson

35. IDEAS AND OPINIONS by Albert Einstein

36. THE AGE OF JACKSON, Arthur Schlesinger by Jr.

37. THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB by Richard Rhodes

38. BLACK LAMB AND GREY FALCON by Rebecca West

39. AUTOBIOGRAPHIES by W. B. Yeats

40. SCIENCE AND CIVILIZATION IN CHINA by Joseph Needham

41. GOODBYE TO ALL THAT by Robert Graves

42. HOMAGE TO CATALONIA by George Orwell

43. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN by Mark Twain

44. CHILDREN OF CRISIS by Robert Coles

45. A STUDY OF HISTORY by Arnold J. Toynbee

46. THE AFFLUENT SOCIETY by John Kenneth Galbraith

47. PRESENT AT THE CREATION by Dean Acheson

48. THE GREAT BRIDGE by David McCullough

49. PATRIOTIC GORE by Edmund Wilson

50. SAMUEL JOHNSON by Walter Jackson Bate

51. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X

52. THE RIGHT STUFF by Tom Wolfe

53. EMINENT VICTORIANS by Lytton Strachey

54. WORKING by Studs Terkel

55. DARKNESS VISIBLE by William Styron

56. THE LIBERAL IMAGINATION by Lionel Trilling

57. THE SECOND WORLD WAR by Winston Churchill

58. OUT OF AFRICA by Isak Dinesen

59. JEFFERSON AND HIS TIME by Dumas Malone

60. IN THE AMERICAN GRAIN by William Carlos Williams

61. CADILLAC DESERT by Marc Reisner

62. THE HOUSE OF MORGAN by Ron Chernow

63. THE SWEET SCIENCE by A. J. Liebling

64. THE OPEN SOCIETY AND ITS ENEMIES by Karl Popper

65. THE ART OF MEMORY by Frances A. Yates

66. RELIGION AND THE RISE OF CAPITALISM by R. H. Tawney

67. A PREFACE TO MORALS by Walter Lippmann

68. THE GATE OF HEAVENLY PEACE by Jonathan D. Spence

69. THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS by Thomas S. Kuhn

70. THE STRANGE CAREER OF JIM CROW by C. Vann Woodward

71. THE RISE OF THE WEST by William H. McNeill

72. THE GNOSTIC GOSPELS by Elaine Pagels

73. JAMES JOYCE by Richard Ellmann

74. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE by Cecil Woodham-Smith

75. THE GREAT WAR AND MODERN MEMORY by Paul Fussell

76. THE CITY IN HISTORY by Lewis Mumford

77. BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM by James M. McPherson

78. WHY WE CAN’T WAIT by Martin Luther King by Jr.

79. THE RISE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT by Edmund Morris

80. STUDIES IN ICONOLOGY by Erwin Panofsky

81. THE FACE OF BATTLE by John Keegan

82. THE STRANGE DEATH OF LIBERAL ENGLAND by George Dangerfield

83. VERMEER by Lawrence Gowing

84. A BRIGHT SHINING LIE by Neil Sheehan

85. WEST WITH THE NIGHT by Beryl Markham

86. THIS BOY’S LIFE by Tobias Wolff

87. A MATHEMATICIAN’S APOLOGY by G. H. Hardy

88. SIX EASY PIECES by Richard P. Feynman

89. PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK by Annie Dillard

90. THE GOLDEN BOUGH by James George Frazer

91. SHADOW AND ACT by Ralph Ellison

92. THE POWER BROKER by Robert A. Caro

93. THE AMERICAN POLITICAL TRADITION by Richard Hofstadter

94. THE CONTOURS OF AMERICAN HISTORY by William Appleman Williams

95. THE PROMISE OF AMERICAN LIFE by Herbert Croly

96. IN COLD BLOOD by Truman Capote

97. THE JOURNALIST AND THE MURDERER by Janet Malcolm

98. THE TAMING OF CHANCE by Ian Hacking

99. OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS by Anne Lamott

100. MELBOURNE by Lord David Cecil

The Reader’s List

1. THE VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS by Ayn Rand

2. DIANETICS:THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH by L. Ron Hubbard

3. OBJECTIVISM: THE PHILOSOPHY OF AYN RAND by Leonard Peikoff

4. 101 THINGS TO DO TIL THE REVOLUTION by Claire Wolfe

5. THE GOD OF THE MACHINE by Isabel Paterson

6. AYN RAND: A SENSE OF LIFE by Michael Paxton

7. THE ULTIMATE RESOURCE by Julian Simon

8. ECONOMICS IN ONE LESSON by Henry Hazlitt

9. SEND IN THE WACO KILLERS by Vin Suprynowicz

10. MORE GUNS, LESS CRIME by John R. Lott

11. PSYCHIATRY: THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL by Bruce Wiseman

12. FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS by G. Hancock

13. CLASSICAL INDIVIDUALISM: THE SUPREME IMPORTANCE OF EACH HUMAN BEING by Tibor Machan

14. FREE TO CHOOSE by Milton and Rose Friedman

15. AIN’T NOBODY’S BUSINESS IF YOU DO by Peter McWilliams

16. THE ROAD TO SERFDOM by F. A. Hayek

17. FREEDOM IN CHAINS by James Bovard

18. AMERICA’S GREAT DEPRESSION by Murray N. Rothbard

19. THE ROOSEVELT MYTH by John T. Flynn

20. THE TRUE BELIEVER by Eric Hoffer

21. VINDICATING THE FOUNDERS by Thomas West

22. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE by Carl L. Becker

23. COGNITIVE THERAPY AND THE EMOTIONAL DISORDERS by Aaron T. Beck

24. DEATH by GOVERNMENT by R. J. Rummel

25. A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN by Virginia Woolf

26. LONGITUDE by Dava Sobel

27. ORDINARILY SACRED by Lynda Sexson

28. SPEAK, MEMORY by Vladimir Nabokov

29. THE ART OF MEMORY by Frances Yates

30. DUMBING US DOWN by John Taylor Gatto

31. THE GOLDEN BOUGH by James Frazer

32. UNDAUNTED COURAGE: MERIWETHER LEWIS, THOMAS JEFFERSON, AND THE OPENING OF THE AMERICAN WEST by Stephen E. Ambrose

33. A MODERN PROPHET by Harold Klemp

34. THE FLUTE OF GOD by Paul Twitchell

35. REAL PRESENCES by George Steiner

36. OUT OF AFRICA by Isak Dinesen

37. WAYS OF SEEING by John Berger

38. THE SHADOW UNIVERSITY: THE BETRAYAL OF LIBERTY ON AMERICA’S CAMPUSES by Alan Charles Kors

39. PROPERTY MATTERS: HOW PROPERTY RIGHTS ARE UNDER ASSAULT AND WHY YOU SHOULD CARE by James V. De Long

40. STORMING HEAVEN by Jay Stevens

41. THE TEXAN by C. S. Barrios

42. HOMAGE TO CATALONIA by George Orwell

43. THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE by Williams James

44. HOW TO LIE WITH STATISTICS by Darrell Huff

45. BUT IS IT TRUE? by Aaron Wildavsky

46. A MATHEMATICIAN READS THE NEWSPAPER by John Allen Paulos

47. ANATOMY OF CRITICISM by Northrop Frye

48. THE MAINSPRING OF HUMAN PROGRESS by Henry Grady Weaver

49. MODERN TIMES by Paul Johnson

50. MEN TO MATCH MY MOUNTAINS by Irving Stone

51. THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS by Henry Adams

52. THE GREAT BRIDGE by David McCullough

53. AMERICAN GAY by Stephen O. Murray

54. THE DOUBLE HELIX by James D. Watson

55. THE SENSE OF AN ENDING by Frank Kermode

56. THE GNOSTIC GOSPELS by Elaine Pagels

57. EROS THE BITTERSWEET by Anne Carson

58. THE WESTERN CANON by Harold Bloom

59. THE WHITE GODDESS by Robert Graves

60. HEALING OUR WORLD by Mary Ruwart

61. SILENT SPRING by Rachel Carson

62. PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK by Annie Dillard

63. SEXUAL PERSONAE by Camille Paglia

64. THINK AND GROW RICH by Napoleon Hill

65. A LIFE OF ONE’S OWN by David Kelley

66. DOORS OF PERCEPTION by Aldous Huxley

67. THE DISCOVERY OF FREEDOM by Rose Wilder Lane

68. MORE LIBERTY MEANS LESS GOVERNMENT by Walter Williams

69. LIBERTARIANISM: A PRIMER by David Boaz

70. BEYOND LIBERAL AND CONSERVATIVE by William Maddox and Stuart Lilie

71. A CONFLICT OF VISIONS: IDEOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF POLITICAL STRUGGLES by Thomas Sowell

72. PARLIAMENT OF WHORES by P. J. O’Rourke

73. SEPARATING SCHOOL AND STATE: HOW TO LIBERATE AMERICA’S FAMILIES by Sheldon Richman

74. THE FUTURE AND ITS ENEMIES by Virginia Postrel

75. THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE by William Strunk and E.B. White

76. ORIENTALISM by Edward Said

77. ECOTERROR by Ron Arnold

78. WHY GOVERNMENT DOESN’T WORK by Harry Browne

79. OUT OF THE CRISIS by W. Edwards Deming

80. NOT OUT OF AFRICA by Mary Lefkowitz

81. THE END OF RACISM by Dinesh D’Souza

82. BEHIND THE MASK by Ian Buruma

83. IN A DARK WOOD by Alston Chase

84. PRIVATE PARTS by Howard Stern

85. THE TELEPHONE BOOK by Avital Ronell

86. THE MINUTEMAN: RESTORING AN ARMY OF THE PEOPLE by Gary Hart

87. WAKING AND DREAMING by Joseph Hart

88. THE GREATEST STORY NEVER TOLD by Lana Cantrell

89. RADICAL SON by David Horowitz

90. UNDER THE SIGN OF SATURN by Susan Sontag

91. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X by Alex Haley and Malcolm X

92. A FEELING FOR BOOKS by Janice Radway

93. THE HERO OF A THOUSAND FACES by Joseph Campbell

94. THE JOB by William Burroughs

95. SILENT INTERVIEWS by Samuel R. Delany

96. SLATS GROBNIK AND SOME OTHER FRIENDS by Mike Royko

97. RISE OF THE UNMELTABLE ETHNICS by Michael Novack

98. REVERSE ANGLE by John Simon

99. PLACING MOVIES by Jonathon Rosenbaum

100. RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING by Patrick J. Buchanan