Books That Changed History

James Naughtie is an award-winning radio presenter and broadcaster, who began his career as a journalist before moving to radio presenting in 1986. For over 20 years he co-presented on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, and he has chaired Radio 4's monthly bookclub since it began in 1997. James Naughtie has chaired both the Man Booker and Samuel Johnson judging panels and written a number of books including The Rivals: The Intimate Story Of A Political Marriage; The Accidental American: Tony Blair And The Presidency; The Making Of Music; The New Elizabethans and The Madness of July.

1: Foreword
2: Introduction
3: 3000BCE – 999CE


1: Ancient Egyptian Books of the Dead
2: I Ching
3: The Art of War
4: Mahabharata
5: Dead Sea Scroll
6: Vienna Dioscoride
7: Book of Kells
8: The Blue Qur’an
9: Diamond Sutra
10: The Exeter Book
11: Directory


4: 1000-1449


1: The Tale of Genji
2: The Canon of Medicine
3: The Domesday
4: The Gospels of Henry the Lion
5: Les Très Riches
6: Heures du Duc de Berry
7: Directory


5: 1450 – 1649


1: Gutenberg Bible
2: Elementa Geometriae
3: Nuremberg Chronicle
4: Divine Comedy
5: Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
6: Harmonice Musices Odhecaton
7: The Codex Leicester
8: Vier Bücher vonmenschlicher Proportion
9: Il Principe
10: Epitome
11: Cosmographia
12: Les Prophéties
13: Aubin Codex
14: The Discoverie of Witchcraft
15: Don Quixote
16: King James Bible
17: Hortus Eystettensis
18: Tutte l’opere d’architettura
19: Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies
20: Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo
21: Bay Psalm Book
22: Directory


6: 1650-1899


1: Micrographia
2: Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
3: Systema Naturae
4: L’Encyclopédie… des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers
5: A Dictionary of the English Language
6: Bucolica, Georgica, et Aeneis
7: Tristram Shandy
8: Fables in Verse
9: The Wealth of Nations
10: Rights of Man
11: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
12: Birds of America
13: Procedure for Writing Words, Music, and Plainsong in Dots
14: Baedeker guidebooks
15: The Pickwick Papers
16: The Holy Land
17: Photographs of British Algae:
18: Cyanotype Impressions
19: Uncle Tom's Cabin
20: Leaves of Grass
21: On the Origin of Species
22: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
23: Das Kapital
24: The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer Now Newly Imprinted
25: Un Coup de Dés Jamais N’Abolira Le Hasard
26: Directory


7: 1900 Onwards


1: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
2: The Tale of Peter Rabbit
3: The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm
4: General Theory of Relativity
5: Pro Dva Kvadrata
6: Penguin’s First 10 Paperback Books
7: The Diary of a Young Girl
8: Le Petit Prince
9: Le Deuxième Sexe
10: The Feminine Mystique
11: Silent Spring
12: Quotations from Chairman
13: Mao Tse-tung
14: Directory


8: Index
9: Acknowledgements