# What are history's absolute most influential texts? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 30, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095 "2010-06-30T18:10:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Bith\_Shuffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@The\_Bith\_Shuffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Bith_Shuffle)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/1 "2010-06-30T18:10:09Z")
I thought it might be enjoyable to create a list of history’s most influential texts. Anyone game? Here are my starting contributions: _The Bible_ _The Qu’ran_ _The Republic_, by Plato _The Communist Manifesto_, by Marx and Engels _The Complete Works of Shakespeare_ (not necessarily as published in a single volume) ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/2 "2010-06-30T18:13:51Z")
Gilgamesh The Code of Hammurabi The Magna Carta The Declaration of Independence The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/3 "2010-06-30T18:15:52Z")
Dante’s _Inferno_ Darwin’s _Origins of Species_. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/4 "2010-06-30T18:26:03Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > Gilgamesh > The Code of Hammurabi > The Magna Carta > The Declaration of Independence > The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights Nitpick: I’d argue that the Epic of Gilgamesh likely had its greatest cultural impact as an oral tradition. It was compiled and written down precisely _because_ it had already become so important that someone thought it was worth doing. For this reason, I’d question the importance of the text. ---
**Author:** ![JCorre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3da27b/32.png) [@JCorre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JCorre)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/5 "2010-06-30T18:39:01Z")
Isaac Newton’s “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica” ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/6 "2010-06-30T18:44:16Z")
> [@The\_Bith\_Shuffle](#): > > _The Qu’ran_ Quibble: R before apostrophe - Qur’an. If you’re not sure, ditch the apostrophe, or just spell it Koran. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/7 "2010-06-30T18:44:16Z")
Euclid’s _Elements_. > [@Skammer](#): > > Dante’s _Inferno_ Why just the _Inferno_—why not the whole _Comedy_? ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/8 "2010-06-30T18:49:39Z")
The Analects of Confucius Tao Te Ching The Art of War (Sun Tzu) The Nicomachean Ethics The Metaphysics ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/9 "2010-06-30T18:55:51Z")
_The Iliad_ by Homer _The Odyssey_ by Homer _The City of God_ by St. Augustine _The Prince_ by Niccolò Machiavelli _Politics_ by Aristotle ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/10 "2010-06-30T20:37:30Z")
Hegel’s _Phenomenology_ Kant’s _Critiques_ _Lyrical Ballads_ _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_ ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/11 "2010-06-30T20:39:47Z")
Darwin’s _The Origin of Species_ ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/12 "2010-06-30T20:41:22Z")
This seems like more of an IMHO kinda question, given that many of the texts cited are putatively nonfiction. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/13 "2010-06-30T20:50:37Z")
Here’s some non-fiction for ya: Mao Tse Tung’s _Little Red Book_ _Mein Kampf_ _Profiles in Courage_ _The Diary of Anne Frank_ _Silent Spring_ _The Feminist Mystique_ Couple fiction: _Uncle Tom’s Cabin_ ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/14 "2010-06-30T21:32:58Z")
Thucydides “History of the Peloponnessian War” Upton Sinclair “The Jungle” Clausewitz “On War” Cervantes “Don Quixote” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/15 "2010-06-30T21:35:48Z")
I’d add Kinsey’s _Sexual Behavior in the Human Male_/_Sexual Behavior in the Human Female_ in their somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/16 "2010-06-30T21:43:22Z")
_The Straight Dope: A Compendium of Human Knowledge_. C. Adams ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/17 "2010-06-30T21:43:35Z")
Andreas Vesalius’s “De humani corporis fabrica” – a ground breaking work of human anatomy that stressed the importance of dissection. This seems obvious now, but it was a basic distinction without which medical progress could only stumble along. It shattered revered authorities like Aristotle and Galen. It’s also a beautiful book. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/18 "2010-06-30T21:44:34Z")
Off the top of my head… Alexis de Tocqueville’s _Democracy In America_ The Federalist Papers The Apology of Socrates Machiavelli’s _The Prince_ _The Autobiography of Frederick Douglas_ The Histories of Herodotus Aristotle’s _Nicomachean Ethics_ Euclid’s _Elements_ ---
**Author:** ![Manwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Manwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manwich)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/19 "2010-06-30T22:50:54Z")
_Leviathan_, by Thomas Hobbes ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095/20 "2010-06-30T23:13:12Z")
_The Confessions_, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-historys-absolute-most-influential-texts/545095.md?page=2)