<p>Two Treatises of Government by John Locke
Provided much of the foundation for the ideas expressed by the U.S. Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.</p>
<p>Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
Same as above, but from the opposite viewpoint.</p>
<p>The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
Created many of the modern perceptions of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Many people take for granted that so many assumptions about Hell are taken from the Inferno and not the Bible.</p>
<p>The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
Foundation of modern biology.</p>
<p>The Illiad and The Oddessy by Homer
Created two of the underlying plot devices in modern literature, movies, etc--the armed conflict and the journey.</p>
<p>Optimization, I totally agree with you if you are referring to Europe and the Americas and only the old society. I am referring to other parts as well.
Arabs had dominated in math, science, technology, astronomy for a long time. Jaffer Ibn Hayyan invented Chemistry. Al-Kindi contributed a lot to Geometry, Analytical GeometryAlgebra is an arabic/persian word. Just think about how much of a pain it would be to keep writing IIIIIsss and XXXXXsss and VVVsss, just to 96 in roman numerals. They came up with the concepts of numbers and 0. So here we had Arabs using number systems while Roman were singing the songs of using IIIIIIIIssss and VVVVVVVsssss and XXXXXssss. Avicenna (Ibn Sina) These philosophers and mathematicians were religious as well.
The Ottoman Empire had a huge impact on the structure of the 'Eastern' society. In fact, Ottoman Empire was huge and encompassed pretty much every country at that time, hence the Moors in Spain. Spain was under the Ottoman control. And then, the Crusades came and did whatever.</p>
<p>Any Holocaust memoir, such as Night by Elie Wiesel. The Diary of Anne Frank probably is the most influential, even if not among the best.</p>
<p>The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon
Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau; not a book, but heavily influenced Gandhi and MLK
The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler (why hasn't anyone mentioned Mein Kampf yet? it's such an obvious choice!)
Lady Chatterley's Lover, DH Lawrence</p>
<p>Gatsby and Kerouac both defined a generation (or counterculture within a generation) . I think by far most of the influential books would be philosophy though.</p>
<p>if you look on wikipedia (yes wikipedia) for the topselling books of all time, right after the Bible is Mao's quotes or manifestos or somethings, and then a DICTIONARY, no really a DICTIONARY....third place, wow</p>
<p>wow i cant believe everyone forgot the dictionary :)</p>
<p>religious texts shouldnt be included, they would dominate the entire list ... everyone knows they're influential anyways and ordering them would only create a huge flame debate (eg. bible vs quran, whats more influential)</p>
<p>Candide, 1984, and Siddhartha forever!
Also mentionable are The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas, and general poetry by e.e. cummings</p>
<p>to kill a mockingbird----> would've been SUCH a great book had I not read it first for a class, I haven't loved a classic read for a class yet :( something's wrong here</p>
<p>
[quote]
after my influential movie suggestion =D, influential mvs suggestion =D!
S.H.E mvs =D
[/quote]
Listening to SHE (and most of chinese pop for that matter is like eating chips. It tastes good but doesnt have any true substance; it doesnt fulfill you.</p>