I recently posted the sixteen books that made Robert B. Down’s list of Books That Changed The World. Equally as intriguing are books that he did not select but which he refers to as “also-rans.”

• De Corporis Humani Fabrica, by Andreas Versalius
• Leibnitz’s writings in mathematics and physics
• The Frontier in American History, by Frederick Jackson Turner
• The Communist Manifesto, by Marx and Engels
• Walden, by Thoreau
• The Life of Washington, by Parson Mason Locke Weems
• Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana
• The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
• Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, by Fannie Farmer
• Etiquette, by Emily Post
• Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Female, by Alfred Kinsey

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RELATED

• Lord Acton’s List of 100 Best Books
• Talking Books – John Mark Reynolds, David Allen White, and Hugh Hewitt
• Science & Social Science Books That Changed the World
• Master List of Great Quotes

Signet Classics has published a revision of Robert B. Downs Books that Changed the World, originally published by The American Library Association. Perhaps it would have been more appropriately named Books In Science and the Social Sciences That Changed the World. Downs indicates that for practical reasons he omitted books from the fields of religion, philosophy, and literature. While acknowledging the importance of these fields, he found it necessary to exclude them because of the “insuperable obstacle” it would have been to come up with a list if those were included.

So the list that follows represents those books from the fields of science and the social sciences which he believes have had “profound influence on history, economics, culture, civilization, and scientific thought, from, roughly the Renaissance down to the mid-twentieth century….[books] that have had a great and continuing impact on human thought and action, not for a single nation, but for a major segment of the world.”

1. The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli
2. Common Sense, by Thomas Paine
3. Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith
4. Essay on the Principle of Population, by Thomas Malthus
5. Civil Disobedience, by Henry David Thoreau
6. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
7. Das Kapital, by Karl Marx
8. The Influence Of Sea Power Upon History 1660-1783, by Alfred T. Mahan
9. The Geographical Pivot of History, by Sir Halford J. Mackinder
10. Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler
11. De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, by Nicolaus Copernicus
12. De Motu Cordis, by William Harvey
13. Principia Mathematica, by Sir Isaac Newton
14. Origin of the Species, by Charles Darwin
15. The Interpretation of Dreams, by Sigmund Freud
16. Relativity, The Special and General Theories, by Albert Einstein

Downs notes that had he included books from the fields of religion and philosophy he would have no doubt included
- The Bible (King James and Douay versions)
- The Talmud
- The Koran
- The sacred Buddhist and Hindu writings
- Confucius
- The Greek philosophers
- St. Augustine
- St. Thomas Aquinas
- Martin Luther
- Immanuel Kant
- Science and Health, by Mary Baker Eddy
- The Book of Morman, by Joseph Smith

He indicates that finalists on his unproduced list of literary works would be such names as:
- The Greek and Roman classical writers
- Dante
- Chaucer
- Rabelais
- Cervantes
- Moliere
- Shakespeare
- Milton
- Goethe
- Heine
- Dostoevsky

And, among travel narratives:
- The travel narratives of Marco Polo
- Christopher Columbus letter of 1493
- Letters of Amerigo Vespucci
- Principall Navigations, Voiages, Traffliques and Discoveries of the English Nation, by Richard Hakluyt
- Pilgrimes, by Samuel Purchas’
- Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne
- One World, by Wendell Willkie

Downs’ list is not intended to be a list of “best books” or “great books”, but a list of influential books. As such it is helpful for the historian to think about why these books were so impactful.

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RELATED

• Lord Acton’s List of 100 Best Books
• Talking Books – John Mark Reynolds, David Allen White, and Hugh Hewitt
• Master List of Great Quotes

Wiley-Blackwell, a major academic publisher, is recalling all copies of its Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization and scrapping the print run after critics said the contents were “too Christian” and “too anti-Muslim.” The publisher was set to release the four-volume encyclopedia this month after it was completed last September, but a small group of critics that included contributors and some members of the editorial board objected to the final version.

“They determined that the introduction and many of the entries were too Christian, too orthodox, too anti-secular and too anti-Muslim and not politically correct enough for being used in universities,” said the encyclopedia’s editor, George Thomas Kurian, in an angry e-mail sent last week to nearly 400 contributors.

The book was intended to be a comprehensive work on the history and legacy of Christianity, looking not only at the religion, but at the aspects of society — such as art, literature, architecture, music, politics and scholarship — that it has shaped.

Now, the book’s publisher and editorial director want to “de-christianize” all 1,450 entries in the encyclopedia to make it politically correct before it can be reprinted, according to Kurian. He claims they want to delete words such as “Antichrist,” “Enemy,” “Beloved Disciple,” “Gates of Hell,” “Witness,” “Virgin Birth,” “Resurrection,” “Evangelism” and any reference with an “evangelical tone.” Chronological markers BC (”Before Christ”) and AD (”Anno Domini”) will also likely be dropped. The publisher further objected to “historical references to the persecution and massacres of Christians by Muslims, but at the same time wanted references favorable to Islam,” said Kurian. “To make the treatment ‘more balanced,’ they also want the insertion of material denigrating Christianity in some form or fashion. All of these I have refused to do.”

Kurian added, “This is the most blatant form of censorship in the history of religious publishing.” He plans to fight the modifications in court, and invited contributors receiving his e-mail to join him in a class-action lawsuit seeking restitution for the lost income and charging Wiley-Blackwell with breach of contract. The suit seeks to have Blackwell publish the encyclopedia as originally approved and printed, without change and without censorship of its Christian content, tone and character.

(borrowed from H.B. London’s Weekly Briefing)

When someone of the stature of Lord Acton recommends a book, it behooves us all to pay attention. Much more when he shares a list of the most important books in Western Civilization…

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“In their correspondence, Lord Acton and Mary Gladstone frequently dis cussed what should constitute ‘the hundred best books.’ Acton eventually sent her his own list, which, in 1883. she recorded in her diary. The list was first published in July 1905 in Pall Mall Magazine (Volume XXXVI. No.147) with an introduction and critique by Clement Shorter. Here is the list as it appeared there.”
~ R. L. Schuettinger, Lord Acton: Historian of Liberty (LaSalle: Open Court, 1976), pp. 237-39.

1. Plato’s Laws—Steinhart’s Introduction.
2. Aristotle’s Politics—Susemihl’s Commentary.
3. Epictetus’ Encheiridion—Commentary of Simplicius.
4. St. Augustine’s Letters.
5. St. Vincent’s Commonitorium.
6. Hugo of S. Victor—De Sacramentis
7. S. Bonaventura—Breviloquium.
8. S. Thomas Aquinas—Summa contra Gentiles.
9. Dante—Divina Commedia.
10. Raymund of Sabunde—Theologia Naturalis.
11. Nicholas of Cusa—Concordantia Catholica.
12. La Bible de Reuss.
13. Pascal’s Pensées—Havet’s Edition.
14. Malebranche. De Ia Recherche de la Vérité.
15. Baarder—Spekulativ Dogmatik.
16. Molitor—Philosophie der Geschichte.
17. Astié—Esprit de Vinet.
18. Piinjer—Geschichte der Religions-philosophie.
19. Rothe—Theologische Ethik.
20. Martensen—Die Christliche Ethik.
21. Oettingen—Moralstatistik.
22. Hartmann—Phenomenologie des sittlichen Bewusstseyns.
23. Leibniz—Letters edited by Klopp.
24. Braniss—Geschichte der Philosophie.
25. Fisher—Franz Bacon.
26. Zeller—Neuere Deutsche Philosophie.
27. Bartholomess—Doctrines Religieuses de la Philosophie Moderne.
28. Guyon—Morale Anglaise.
29. Ritschl—Entstehung der Altkatholischen Kirche.
30. Loening—Geschichte des Kirchenrechts.
31. Baur—Vorlesungen über Dogmengeschichte.
32. Fénelon—Correspondence.
33. Newman’s Theory of Development.
34. Mozley’s University Sermons.
35. Schneckenburger—Vergleichende Darstellung.
36. Hundeshagen—Kirchenvorfassungsgeschichte.
37. Schweizer—Protestantische Centraldogmen.
38. Gass—Geschichte der Lutherischen Dogmatik.
39. Cart—Histoire do Mouvement Religleux dans le Canton de Vaud.
40. Blondel—De Ia Primenté.
41. Le Blanc de Beaulieu—Theses.
42. Thierach—Vorlesungen ilber Katholizismus.
43. M5hler—Neue Untersuchungen.
44. Scherer—Mélanges de Critique Religleuse.
45. Hooker—Ecclesiastical Polity.
46. Weingarten—Revolutionskirchen Englands.
47. Kliefoth—Acht Bücher von der Kirche.
48. Laurent—Etudes de l’Histoire de l’Humenité.
49. Ferrari—Révolutions de l’Italie.
50. Lange—Geschichte des Materialismus.
51. Guicciardini—Ricordi Politici.
52. Duperron—Ambassades.
53. Richelieu—Testament Politique.
54. Harringlon’s Writings.
55. Mignet—Négotiations de la Succession d’Espagne.
56. Rousseau—Considérations sur la Pologne.
57. Foncin—Ministère de Turgot.
58. Burke’s Correspondence.
59. Mémorial de Ste. Hélène.
60. Holtzendorf—Systematische Rechts-encyklopädie.
61. Thering—Ceist des Röcimischen Rechts.
62. Geib—Strafrecht.
63. Maine—Ancient Law.
64. Gierke—Genossenschaftsrecht.
65. Stahl—Philosophie des Rechts.
66. Gentz—Briefwechsel mit Adam Müller.
67. Vollgraff—Polignosie.
68. Frantz—Kritik aller Parteien.
69. De Maistre—Considérations sur Ia France.
70. Donoso Cortes—Ecrits Politiques.
71. Périn—De Ia Richesse dans les Sociétés Chrétiennes.
72. Le Play—La Reforme Sociale.
73. Riehl—Die Biirgerliche Sociale.
74. Sismondi—Etudes sur les Constitutions des Peuples Libres.
75. Rossi—Cours du Droit Constitutionnel.
76. Barante—Vie de Roger Collard.
77. Duvergier de Hauranne—Histoire du Gouvernement Parlementaire.
78. Madison—Debates of the Congress of Confederation.
79. Hamilton—The Federalist.
80. Calhoun—Essay on Government.
81. Dumont—Sophismes Anarchiques.
82. Quinet—La Révolution Française,
83. Stein—Sozialismus in Frankreich.
84. Lasselle—System der Erworbenen Rechte.
85. Thomissen—Le Socialisme depuis l’ Antiquité.
86. Considérant—Destinée Sociale.
87. Rosher—Nationalökonomik.
88. [missing]
89. Mill—System of Logic.
90. Coleridge—Aids to Reflection.
91. Radowitz Fragmente.
92. Gioberti—Pensieri.
93. Humboldt—Kosmos.
94. De Candolle—Histoire des Sciences et des Savants.
95. Darwin—Origin of Species.
96. Littré—Fragrnents de Philosophie.
97. Cournot—Enchaînements des Idées fondamentales.
98. Monatsschrift des wissenschaftlichen Vereins.
99. [missing]
100. [missing]

I highly recommend James S. Jeffers’ book The Greco-Roman World of the New Testament Era: Exploring the Background of Early Christianity. It is both informative and enjoyable. In his chapter on “Life and Death in the First Century” he recommends the following books for further reading:

Labor and the Economy

• The Social Context of Paul’s Ministry: Tentmaking and Apostleship, by Ronald F. Hock

Leisure and Games

• Cruelty and Civilization: The Roman Games, by Roland Auguet

Travel

• Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World, by Lionel Casson
• Travel in the Ancient World, by Lionel Casson
• The Book of Acts in Its Graeco-Roman Setting, edited by David W. J. gill and Conrad Gempf
• The Cities of St. Paul: Their Influece on His Life and Thought, by William Ramsay

Dining

• Roman Cookery, by John Edwards
• Rome: Its People, Life and Customs, by Ugo Enrico Paoli

Interested in historiography from a Christian worldview? Here are a few books you might wish to look at.

The Meaning of History, by Ronald Nash

Christian Faith and Historical Understanding, by Ronald Nash

Historiography: Secular and Religious, by Gordon Clark

History and Christianity, by John Warwick Montgomery

The Study of History, by Lord Acton

Jesus and His Death: Historiography, the Historical Jesus, and Atonement Theory, by Scot McKnight

Telling the Truth About History, by Appleby, Hunt & Jacob

Faith and History, by Reinhold Niebuhr

Understanding History, by Louis Gottschalk

The Christian Views History, by Howard Grimes

Meaning In History, by Karl Lowith

The Meaning of History, by Nicolas Berdyaev

Prolegomena To History, by Frederick J. Teggart

The Spiritual Element in History, by Robert W. McLaughlin

God in History, by Sherwood Eddy

The Past and the Present Revisited, by Lawrence Stone

Christian Jihad, written by Ergun and Emir Caner, gives a detailed overview and examination of Christian history from the early church through the middle ages up until the time of the Reformation, particularly elucidating the views of war by the major figures in each era, from passivity to aggression. In addition this work provides insight into the relationship of the Church and State through those time periods. It also provides an honest and unapologetic account of when Christendom pronounced Holy Wars against Islamic regimes and sought to make converts by force. I believe this book is most helpful in giving contemporary Christians a more in-depth understanding into the dynamics, thinking and details throughout Christian history regarding war and religious conflict. It gives insight in regards to these issues for contemporary Christians and the lessons that can be learned from history. Additionally, this book provides a very helpful appendix regarding “just war criteria” from thoughts of major thinkers throughout Christian history. This work is a must read for Christians and non-Christians alike.