CounterPunch's Top 100
(and a few more) Non-fiction Works
of the 20th Century
The editors at CounterPunch read all those lists of the hundred best books of the century and didn't care for them. So we've talked to friends, striven to remember what shaped us, informed us, what was innovative, path-breaking. Here's our reckoning. This first instalment is of non-fiction, first published in English. They are presented here in alphabetical order by author. The books can be purchased online from amazon.com by simply clicking on the book's title or image. CounterPunch will receive a modest donation from the sale of any book purchased through the "channel" of our website. (Or visit other online bookshops, such as Powells.) Many of the books are out of print (a sad commentary in its own right). For those titles, we have provided a hyperlink to one of our favorite websites, Advanced Book Exchange. Also check out our new list of our favorite 100 Nonfiction books first translated into English in the 20th century. Commentary is welcome: Booktalk.
--Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair
| Edward Abbey Desert Solitaire: a season in the wilderness |
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| Louis
Adamic Dynamite: a century of class violence in America 1830-1930 |
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| Philip
Agee Inside the Company: CIA diary |
Out of Print |
| Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murry Silverstein A Pattern Language: towns, building and construction |
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| Jack
Anderson Confessions of a Muckraker : the inside story of life in Washington during the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson years |
Out of Print |
| Kenneth Anger Hollywood Babylon |
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| Hannah Arendt Eichmann in Jerusalem: a report on the banality of evil |
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| David Arora Mushrooms Demystified: a guide to the fleshy fungi |
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| Sylvia
Ashton-Warner Spinster |
Out of Print |
| James Baldwin The Devil Finds Work |
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| Reyner Banham Los Angeles: the architecture of four ecologies |
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| Joseph Borkin The Crime and Punishment of IG Farben |
Out of Print |
| B.A. Botkin A Treasury of Mississippi River Folktales |
Out of Print |
| Jim Bouten Ball Four |
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| Richard Boyer and Herbert Morais Labor's Untold Story |
|
| Marshall
Bradley, Fern Bradley and Barbara Ellis The Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening |
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| Harry Braverman Labor and Monopoly Capital: the degradation of work in the Twentieth Century |
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| Kathleen Brenzel Western Garden Book |
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| David Brower For the Earth's Sake |
Out of Print |
| Norman O. Brown Life Against Death: the psychoanalytical meaning of history |
|
| Robert
Byron The Road to Oxiana |
Out of Print |
| E.H.
Carr What Is History? |
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| Allan Chase The Legacy of Malthus |
Out of Print |
| Samuel B. Charters The Country Blues |
|
| Noam Chomsky The Fateful Triangle: the United States, Israel and the Palestinians |
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| Andrew Cockburn The Threat: inside the Soviet military machine |
Out of Print |
| Claud Cockburn I Claud |
Out of Print |
| William Cronon Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the great west |
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| Elizabeth
David French Provincial Cooking |
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| Alexandra David-Neel My Journey to Lhasa |
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| Vine DeLoria, Jr. Custer Died for Your Sins: an Indian manifesto |
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| Angie Debo Geronimo: the man, his time, his place |
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| John Dower War Without Mercy: race & power in the pacific war |
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| E.R.
Dodds The Greeks and The Irrational |
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| W.E.B. DuBois The Souls of Black Folk |
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| Havelock Ellis Studies in the Psychology of Sex |
Out of Print |
| William Empson Seven Types of Ambiguity |
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| Encyclopedia Britannica 11th Edition |
Out of Print |
| Shulamith Firestone The Dialectic of Sex: the case for a feminist revolution |
Out of Print |
| MKF Fisher How to Cook a Wolf |
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| Henry Watson Fowler Modern English Usage |
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| Roger Fry Cezanne: a study of his development |
| Northrop Frye An Anatomy of Criticism: four essays |
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| Alex
Haley and Malcolm X The Autobiography of Malcolm X |
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| Myles Horton The Long Haul: an autobiography |
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| Martha Gellhorn The Face of War |
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| Dan Georgakas Detroit: I Do Mind Dying |
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| Paul Goodman Growing Up Absurd |
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| Stephen Jay Gould The Mismeasure of Man |
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| Robert Graves Goodbye to All That |
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| Alice Hamilton Exploring the Dangerous Trades |
Out of Print |
| ECS Handy and Elizabeth Handy Native Planters in Old Hawaii: their life, lore and environment |
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| Gerald Hanley Warriors: Life and Death Among the Somalis |
Out of Print |
| Jane E. Harrison Themis: a study in the social origins of Greek religion |
Out of Print |
| Anthony Heilbut The Gospel Sound: good news and bad times |
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| Seymour Hersh Kissinger: the Price of Power |
Out of Print |
| George Leonard Herter and Berte Herter Bull Cook: Authentic Recipes and Practices |
Out of Print |
| Christopher Hill The World Turned Upside Down: radical ideas during the English revolution |
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| William Hinton Fanshen: a doumentary of revolution in a Chinese village |
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| Ivan
Illich Deschooling Society |
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| Harold A. Innis The Fur Trade in Canada : an introduction to Canadian economic history |
Out of Print |
| CLR James The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution |
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| Gertrude Jekyll Home and Garden |
Out of Print |
| Ernest Jones The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud |
Out of Print |
| Leroi Jones Blues People: negro music in white America |
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| Walter Karp The Politics of War |
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| Pauline Kael For Keeps: 30 years at the movies |
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| John
Maynard Keynes The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money |
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| Alfred
Kinsey, et al. The Kinsey Reports on Human Sexual Behavior |
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| Andrew Kopkind The Thirty Years' War: dispatches and diversions of a radical journalist 1965-1994 |
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| Frank Kofsky Harry Truman and the War Scare of 1948: a successful campaign to deceive the nation |
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| John Fire Lame Deer Seeker of Visions |
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