The Education of Henry Adams
An intellectual's autobiography investigates the adequacy of inherited education for understanding the forces transforming modern society.
No shop edition listed
Modern Library: 100 Best Nonfiction - Board's List (1999)
History, memoir, science, criticism and ideas in the Modern Library board’s 1999 nonfiction ranking. Explore all 100 selections, with short introductions, publication dates and links to fine editions.
Showing 100 of 100 books
No books match these filters.
The Varieties of Religious Experience
Lectures examine religious experience through individual testimony, considering belief, conversion and the psychological varieties of spiritual life.
No shop edition listed
Up From Slavery
An educator's autobiography recounts his movement from enslavement toward the establishment of institutions intended to expand Black opportunity.
No shop edition listed
A Room of One’s Own
An argument about women and writing examines the material independence and intellectual space required for literary creation.
Available nowEditions of A Room of One’s Own
-
A Room Of One's Own - Virginia Woolf - Folio Society - 2017View edition
Silent Spring
An investigation of pesticide use connects environmental damage with the need to question the consequences of apparently beneficial technologies.
Previously soldEditions of Silent Spring
-
Silent Spring - Rachel Carson - Folio Society - 2021 1st EditionView sold edition
Selected Essays, 1917-1932
A collection of literary and cultural criticism sets out influential arguments about tradition, poetry and the practice of interpretation.
No shop edition listed
The Double Helix
A participant's account of the discovery of DNA's structure reveals the competition, personalities and contingencies behind a scientific breakthrough.
No shop edition listed
Speak, Memory
An intricately composed memoir revisits a Russian childhood, exile and the patterns memory finds within a changing family history.
No shop edition listed
The American Language
An investigation of American English explores its differences from British usage and the forces that shape a living national language.
No shop edition listed
The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money
An economic argument challenges established assumptions about employment and demand, proposing a different account of instability and government intervention.
No shop edition listed
The Lives of a Cell
Essays use biological discoveries to explore cooperation, language and humanity's place within the interconnected processes of life.
No shop edition listed
The Frontier in American History
Historical essays examine the role of westward expansion in shaping American institutions, political habits and national self-understanding.
No shop edition listed
Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth
An autobiographical account of a Southern childhood examines hunger, racial oppression and the development of an independent literary consciousness.
No shop edition listed
Aspects of the Novel
Lectures discuss story, plot, character and other elements of fiction through an accessible, example-driven account of the novelist's craft.
No shop edition listed
The Civil War
A three-volume narrative recounts the American Civil War through military campaigns, political leadership and the experiences of its participants.
No shop edition listed
The Guns of August
An account of the First World War's opening month examines decisions and assumptions that helped transform a crisis into prolonged catastrophe.
No shop edition listed
The Proper Study of Mankind
Essays in the history of ideas explore liberty, pluralism and the conflicts between competing accounts of how human beings should live.
No shop edition listed
The Nature and Destiny of Man
A Christian interpretation of human nature examines freedom, pride, historical action and the tension between human possibility and limitation.
No shop edition listed
Notes of a Native Son
Essays connect personal experience with questions of race, belonging and the tensions of American cultural life.
No shop edition listed
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
A writer adopts her partner's autobiographical voice to recount their lives within the artistic circles of Paris.
No shop edition listed
The Elements of Style
A concise handbook sets out principles of English usage, composition and prose style, combining practical guidance with forceful editorial preferences.
No shop edition listed
An American Dilemma
A large sociological study examines the contradiction between American democratic ideals and the practices sustaining racial inequality.
No shop edition listed
Principia Mathematica
A foundational work in mathematical logic attempts to derive mathematical truths from formally stated logical principles.
No shop edition listed
The Mismeasure of Man
A critique of intelligence measurement examines the historical entanglement of scientific claims with assumptions about race, class and human worth.
No shop edition listed
The Mirror and the Lamp
A study of Romantic criticism examines changing models of art, especially the movement from imitation toward expressive accounts of creativity.
No shop edition listed
The Art of the Soluble
Essays on scientific thinking consider explanation, discovery and the importance of choosing questions that can produce fruitful investigation.
No shop edition listed
The Ants
A comprehensive study surveys ants' evolution, behaviour and social organisation, revealing the complexity of their cooperative lives.
No shop edition listed
A Theory of Justice
A philosophical account of justice asks what principles people would choose without knowing their own position within society.
No shop edition listed
Art and Illusion
An inquiry into pictorial representation examines how artistic conventions, expectation and perception shape the making and understanding of images.
No shop edition listed
The Making of the English Working Class
A history of working people explores how shared experiences, political struggles and cultural traditions shaped class consciousness in England.
No shop edition listed
The Souls of Black Folk
Essays combine history, sociology and personal reflection to examine Black American experience and the continuing consequences of racial division.
No shop edition listed
Principia Ethica
An ethical inquiry examines the meaning of goodness and challenges attempts to define moral value entirely through natural properties.
No shop edition listed
Philosophy and Civilization
Philosophical essays consider inquiry, social institutions and the relationship between intellectual habits and the practical problems of civilisation.
No shop edition listed
On Growth and Form
A study of living forms explores how mathematical relationships and physical forces help explain biological growth and structure.
No shop edition listed
Ideas and Opinions
Collected writings present reflections on scientific work, politics, education and the social responsibilities of intellectual life.
No shop edition listed
The Age of Jackson
A history of Jacksonian America connects political change with conflicts over class, economic power and democratic participation.
No shop edition listed
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
A detailed history follows the scientific discoveries and wartime decisions that culminated in the creation of atomic weapons.
No shop edition listed
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
Travels in Yugoslavia become an extensive reflection on history, national identity and the political dangers facing Europe.
No shop edition listed
Autobiographies
Autobiographical writings reconstruct a poet's youth, artistic development and involvement in the cultural life of Ireland.
No shop edition listed
Science and Civilization in China
A multivolume history investigates the development of science and technology in China and its relationship with other intellectual traditions.
No shop edition listed
Goodbye to All That
An account of childhood and military service explores the rupture created by the First World War and the rejection of inherited loyalties.
No shop edition listed
Homage to Catalonia
An account of fighting in the Spanish Civil War examines revolutionary hope, political factionalism and the manipulation of public truth.
No shop edition listed
The Autobiography of Mark Twain
Dictated recollections and autobiographical fragments range across a writer's life, combining personal memory with opinions on society and public affairs.
No shop edition listed
Children of Crisis
Studies of American children connect individual experience with the pressures of poverty, segregation and social exclusion.
No shop edition listed
A Study of History
A comparative history investigates how civilisations develop, respond to challenges and experience decline across different periods and regions.
No shop edition listed
The Affluent Society
An economist questions the priorities of prosperous societies, contrasting private consumption with neglected public needs.
No shop edition listed
Present at the Creation
A former American secretary of state's memoir recounts diplomatic decisions and institution-building during the early Cold War.
No shop edition listed
The Great Bridge
The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge becomes a history of engineering ambition, political conflict and the people behind a major public undertaking.
No shop edition listed
Patriotic Gore
A study of Civil War-era writing examines how literary voices expressed the conflict's moral tensions and lasting psychological consequences.
No shop edition listed
Samuel Johnson
A biography examines Samuel Johnson's intellectual achievement alongside the emotional difficulties and moral seriousness of his life.
No shop edition listed
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
A collaboratively produced autobiography follows Malcolm X's changing beliefs, activism and developing understanding of race and political struggle.
No shop edition listed
The Right Stuff
An account of American test pilots and early astronauts examines courage, professional rivalry and the public manufacture of heroism.
No shop edition listed
Eminent Victorians
Four compact biographies use irony and selective detail to unsettle the reverential treatment of prominent Victorian figures.
No shop edition listed
Working
Oral histories let people in varied occupations describe their daily labour, frustrations and ideas about the meaning of work.
No shop edition listed
Darkness Visible
A writer's account of severe depression examines the experience of illness and the difficult process of recovery.
No shop edition listed
The Liberal Imagination
Literary essays investigate the relationship between imaginative complexity, moral judgement and the limitations of contemporary political habits.
No shop edition listed
The Second World War
A six-volume account of the Second World War combines historical narrative with the author's perspective as a major political participant.
No shop edition listed
Out of Africa
Memories of life on a Kenyan coffee farm reflect on landscape, relationships and a vanished colonial world.
No shop edition listed
Jefferson and His Time
A six-volume biography reconstructs Thomas Jefferson's public career and private life within the development of the early American republic.
No shop edition listed
In the American Grain
Historical portraits reinterpret American figures and encounters through a poet's investigation of the country's cultural inheritance.
No shop edition listed
Cadillac Desert
An investigation of water development in the American West examines the political ambitions and ecological costs behind large engineering projects.
No shop edition listed
The House of Morgan
The history of a banking dynasty reveals the changing relationship between private finance, governments and international economic power.
No shop edition listed
The Sweet Science
Essays on boxing combine descriptions of fights with portraits of the people, traditions and business surrounding the sport.
No shop edition listed
The Open Society and Its Enemies
A defence of open political institutions challenges philosophical traditions that subordinate individual freedom to supposedly inevitable historical destinies.
No shop edition listed
The Art of Memory
A history of mnemonic practices traces elaborate methods of remembering and their connections with philosophy, religion and Renaissance thought.
No shop edition listed
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
A historical argument examines the changing relationship between Christian moral teaching and the development of modern economic attitudes.
No shop edition listed
A Preface to Morals
An inquiry into modern ethical life asks how moral commitments might endure when traditional sources of authority lose their hold.
No shop edition listed
The Gate of Heavenly Peace
Biographical and historical narratives illuminate intellectual life and political change in modern China.
No shop edition listed
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
An account of scientific change argues that periods of established research are interrupted by transformations in the frameworks through which knowledge develops.
No shop edition listed
The Strange Career of Jim Crow
A history of segregation challenges assumptions that Jim Crow was an inevitable or unchanging feature of Southern society.
No shop edition listed
The Rise of the West
A broad history of human communities emphasises the exchanges and encounters through which civilisations influence one another.
No shop edition listed
The Gnostic Gospels
An examination of early Christian texts considers how competing beliefs illuminate the formation of religious authority and orthodoxy.
No shop edition listed
James Joyce
A biography reconstructs James Joyce's family life, artistic development and years of exile alongside the creation of his major works.
No shop edition listed
Florence Nightingale
A biography examines Florence Nightingale's life and the administrative, statistical and medical work behind her public reputation.
No shop edition listed
The Great War and Modern Memory
A study of First World War writing examines how soldiers and later authors transformed traumatic experience into cultural memory.
No shop edition listed
The City in History
A history of cities investigates their institutions, physical arrangements and changing capacity to support collective human life.
No shop edition listed
Battle Cry of Freedom
A history of the Civil War era connects military conflict with the political and social disputes surrounding slavery and Union.
No shop edition listed
Why We Can’T Wait
An account of the Birmingham campaign argues for the urgency of civil rights action and the principles of nonviolent resistance.
No shop edition listed
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
The first part of a presidential biography follows Theodore Roosevelt from childhood to his accession to national leadership.
No shop edition listed
Studies in Iconology
Studies of Renaissance art examine how images carry historical meanings through recurring subjects, symbols and intellectual traditions.
No shop edition listed
The Face of Battle
An investigation of three battles examines what combat may have felt like for participants beyond the perspective of commanders.
No shop edition listed
The Strange Death of Liberal England
An account of prewar British conflict links the weakening of Liberal authority with labour unrest, women's suffrage and the crisis over Ireland.
No shop edition listed
Vermeer
A study of Vermeer's paintings examines their visual construction and the unusual relationship they create between observation and the represented world.
No shop edition listed
A Bright Shining Lie
The life of an American adviser becomes a framework for examining the ambitions, misunderstandings and consequences of intervention in Vietnam.
Available nowEditions of A Bright Shining Lie
-
A Bright Shining Lie - Neil Sheehan - Folio Society - 2021 1st EditionView edition
West with the Night
A memoir of childhood in East Africa and work as a pilot connects independence, landscape and the hazards of early aviation.
No shop edition listed
This Boy’s Life
Memories of a troubled American childhood examine deception, family authority and a boy's attempts to imagine a different future.
No shop edition listed
A Mathematician’s Apology
A mathematician reflects on the beauty and value of pure mathematics while considering age, creativity and the limits of a working life.
No shop edition listed
Six Easy Pieces
Six introductory lectures explain central ideas in physics, presenting scientific understanding through accessible examples and questions.
No shop edition listed
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Close observation of a Virginia creek becomes an inquiry into attention, natural abundance and the unsettling violence within living systems.
No shop edition listed
The Golden Bough
A comparative study gathers myths and rituals into an ambitious account of the relationships between magic, religion and cultural change.
No shop edition listed
Shadow and Act
Essays explore literature, music and the relationship between American identity and Black cultural experience.
No shop edition listed
The Power Broker
A biography of Robert Moses investigates how a public official acquired and exercised the power to reshape New York.
No shop edition listed
The American Political Tradition
Portraits of American leaders question the assumptions and shared interests underlying apparently opposing political traditions.
No shop edition listed
The Contours of American History
An interpretation of American history examines the relationships between economic expansion, political ideals and changing forms of power.
No shop edition listed
The Promise of American Life
A political argument considers how collective institutions and national purpose might reconcile democratic ideals with the inequalities of modern American life.
No shop edition listed
In Cold Blood
An account of a Kansas family's murder reconstructs the crime, the killers' histories and the investigation that followed.
No shop edition listed
The Journalist and the Murderer
A dispute between a journalist and his subject becomes an inquiry into trust, manipulation and the ethics of reporting.
No shop edition listed
The Taming of Chance
A history of probability examines how statistical ideas transformed understandings of causation, normality and social life.
No shop edition listed
Operating Instructions
A journal of a son's first year combines the practical challenges of single motherhood with reflections on dependence, faith and emotional survival.
No shop edition listed
Melbourne
A biography traces Lord Melbourne's personal and political life, including the family relationships and public career behind his premiership.
No shop edition listed