In the early 1990s, Tom Butler-Bowdon was working as an adviser at the New South Wales Cabinet Office in Sydney, writing briefing papers for senior ministers. He took a year off to do further study in the UK, but put aside his political economy textbooks to read a growing pile of motivational and self-help literature. On returning to Australia, Butler-Bowdon spent some time in the Outback, where the idea came to him of writing about the classic books in the self-help literature. Based in Oxford, UK, he now writes full-time, runs Butler-Bowdon.com, and does occasional speaking engagements. He has a BA (Hons) degree in Politics and History from the University of Sydney, and a Masters degree in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics.

Introduction; 1. Lord Acton 'Essays on Freedom and Power' (1948); 2. Daron Acemoglu & James Robinson 'Why Nations Fail: The Originsof Power, Prosperity, and Poverty' (2012); 3. Saul Alinsky 'Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals' (1971); 4. Graham T Allison & Philip Zelikow 'Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis' (1971/1999); 5. Norman Angell 'The Great Illusion: A Study of the Relation of Military Power to National Advantage' (1910); 6. Hannah Arendt 'The Origins of Totalitarianism' (1951); 7. Aristotle Politics (4th century BCE); 8. Isaiah Berlin 'Two Concepts of Liberty' (1958); 9. Edward Bernays 'Propaganda' (1928); 10. Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward 'All the President's Men' (1974); 11. Edmund Burke 'Reflections on the Revolution in France' (1790); 12. Rachel Carson 'Silent Spring' (1962); 13. Winston Churchill 'The Gathering Storm' (1948); 14. Carl von Clausewitz 'On War' (1832); 15. Francis Fukuyama 'The End of History and the Last Man' (1992); 16. Mohandas K Gandhi 'An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth' (1927-29); 17. Emma Goldman 'Anarchism and Other Essays' (1910); 18. Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, & James Madison 'The Federalist Papers' (1788); 19. F.A. Hayek 'The Road to Serfdom' (1944); 20. Thomas Hobbes 'Leviathan or the Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil' (1651); 21. Samuel P. Huntington 'The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order' (1996); 22. Paul Kennedy 'The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers' (1987); 23. Martin Luther King, Jr. (edited by Clayborne Carson 'The Autobiography of Martin Luther King' (1998); 24. Naomi Klein 'No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies' (1999); 25. Abraham Lincoln 'The Gettysburg Address' (1863); 26. John Locke 'Two Treatises of Civil Government' (1689); 27. Niccolo Machiavelli 'Discourses on Livy' (1531); 28. Nelson Mandela 'Long Walk to Freedom' (1995); 29. Karl Marx & Friedrick Engels 'The Communist Manifesto' (1848); 30. Mencius 'The Mencius' (4th century BCE); 31. John Micklethwait & Adrian Wooldridge 'The Fourth Revolution: The Global Race to Reinvent the State' (2014); 32. John Stuart Mill 'The Subjection of Women' (1869); 33. Hans Morgenthau 'Politics among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace' (1948); 34. Robert Nozick Anarchy, State and Utopia (1974); 35. Joseph S Nye 'The Future of Power' (2011); 36. Mancur Olson 'The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities' (1982); 37. George Orwell 'Animal Farm' (1945); 38. Thomas Paine 'Common Sense' (1776); 39. Plato 'Crito' (4th century BCE); 40. Karl Popper 'The Open Society and Its Enemies' (1945); 41. Jean-Jacques Rousseau 'Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality among Men' (1755). 42. Upton Sinclair 'The Jungle' (1906); 43. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 'The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-56' (1971); 44. Sun-Yat Sen 'Three Principles of the People' (1924); 45. Margaret Thatcher 'The Autobiography' (2013); 46. Henry David Thoreau 'On the Duty of Civil Disobedience' (1849); 47. Alexis de Tocqueville 'Democracy in America' (1835); 48. Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett 'The Spirit Level: Why Equality Is Better for Everyone' (2009); 49. Mary Wollstonecraft 'A Vindication of the Rights of Women' (1792); 50. Fareed Zakaria 'The Post-American World' (2008); More Politics Classics; Credits; Acknowledgments