| Title | Genre | Creator | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leviathan | Politics | Thomas Hobbes | 1651 |
| The Republic | Politics | Plato | 4th Cent. BC |
| Common Sense | Politics | Thomas Paine | 1776 |
| Principia Mathematica | Physics | Isaac Newton | 1667 |
| The Prince | Politics | Niccoló Machiavelli | 1513 |
| The Social Contract | Politics | Jean-Jacques Rousseau | 1762 |
| An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations | Economics | Adam Smith | 1776 |
| J'accuse | Open Letter | Émile(-Édouard-Charles-Antoine) Zola | 1898 |
| The Elements | Math | Euclid | c. 300 BC |
| Coming of Age in Samoa | Anthro. | Margaret Mead | 1928 |
| The Communist Manifesto | Politics | Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels | 1848 |
| Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God | Religious | Jonathan Edwards | 1741 |
| The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money | Economics | John Maynard Keynes | 1936 |
| Pragmatism | Philosophy | William James | 1907 |
| Book of Mormon | Religious | Joseph Smith(, Jr.) (traditional translator) | 1830 (1st pub) |
| Qur'an | Religious | Muhammad | 652 |
| Meditations | Philosophy Marcus Aurelius | c. 161-180 | |
| On The Origin of Species | Biology | Charles Darwin | 1859 |
| Ethics | Philosophy | Benedict de Spinoza | 1663 |
| Rig Veda | Religious | Unknown | c. 1500 BC |
| The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism | Sociology | Max Weber | 1904 |
| Apology | Philosophy | Plato | c. 428-348 BC |
| Utilitarianism | Philosophy | John Stuart Mill | 1863 |
| I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings | Autobiog. | Maya Angelou | 1970 |
| Critique of Pure Reason | Philosophy | Immanuel Kant | 1781 |
| Summa theologica | Theology | Thomas Aquinas | 1265 |
| Cross of Gold speech | Speech | William Jennings Bryan | 1896 |
| The Gospel According to Matthew | Religious | Saint Matthew | 1st century |
| Vedas | Religious | Anonymous | 1500 to 1000 BC |
| The American Crisis | Politics | Thomas Paine | 1776 |
| The Federalist Papers | Politics | Alexander; John Jay, and James Madison Hamilton | 1787 |
| Novum Organum | Philosophy | Francis Bacon | 1620 |
| Principia Mathematica | Math | Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell | 1910-1913 |
| Essay on Population | Essay | Thomas (Robert) Malthus | 1798 |
| Beyond Good and Evil | Philosophy | Friedrich Nietzsche | 1886 |
| Philippics | Speech | Demosthenes | 351-341 BC |
| The Book of Psalms | Religious | David (traditionally) | various |
| Upanishads | Religious | Anonymous | 600 BC |
| The Affluent Society | Economics | John Kenneth Galbraith | 1959 |
| Almagest | Astronomy | Ptolemy of Alexandria (Claudius Ptolemaeus) | 150 |
| The Chrysanthemum and the Sword | Anthro. | Ruth (Fulton) Benedict | 1946 |
| Crito | Philosophy | Plato | 350 BC |
| Phaedo | Philosophy | Plato | 350 BC |
| The Gulag Archipelago | History | Aleksandr (Isayevich) Solzhenitsyn | 1973 |
| The Myth of Sisyphus | Philosophy | Albert Camus | 1942 |
| Patterns of Culture | Anthro. | Ruth (Fulton) Benedict | 1934 |
| Silent Spring | Advocacy | Rachel Carson | 1962 |
| Reflections on the Revolution in France | Essay | Edmund Burke | 1790 |
| Poetics | Criticism | Aristotle | 340 BC |
| A Dictionary of the English Language | Reference | Samuel Johnson | 1755 |