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).