100 books that changed the world

A chronological survey of the world's most influential books. Many books have become classics, must-reads or overnight publishing sensations, but how many can genuinely claim to have changed the way we see and think?

In 100 Books that Changed the World, authors Scott Christianson and Colin Salter bring together an exceptional collection of truly groundbreaking books – from scriptures that founded religions, to scientific treatises that challenged beliefs, to novels that kick-started literary genres.

This elegantly designed book offers a chronological survey of the most important books from around the globe, from the earliest illuminated manuscripts to the age of the ebook publication. Entries include: The Iliad and The Odyssey, Homer (750 BC), Gutenberg Bible (1450s), The Quran (AD 609–632), On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, Nicolaus Copernicus (1543), Shakespeare’s First Folio (1623), Philosophae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Isaac Newton (1687), The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith (1776), The Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft (1792), On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin (1859), Das Kapital, Karl Marx (1867), The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud (1899), The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank (1947), Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (1964), A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking (1988).