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| 2343090052 | An Essay on the Principle of Population Thomas Malthus, 1798 | SUBJECT: argument that when population goes unchecked, it will double every 25 years, and it needs to instead be kept down to the level of subsistence. WHY WRITTEN: Malthus wanted to emphasize the probability of a population swell and crash. He knew that population could not grow exponentially, but warned that as it grew larger, it implied a larger crash. | 0 | |
| 2343216167 | Frankenstein Mary Shelley, 1818 | SUBJECT: doctor Victor Frankenstein discovers how to bring a body of pieced together corpse pieces to life, and the monster terrorizes him and his wife, and eventually kills Frankenstein's brother-in-law and runs away. Later he returns and kills Frankenstein's bride, and the townspeople kill the monster. WHY WRITTEN: Shelley, previously Mary Wollstonecraft, was the world's first feminist. She was challenged to write a ghost story by Lord Byron, and it was immediately successful, mirroring the Romantic world's worries. | 1 | |
| 2343319734 | The Communist Manifesto Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1848 | SUBJECT: discusses the disparities between proletarians, bourgeois, and Communists and criticizes previous socialist publications. Describes an ideal Communist society WHY WRITTEN: Marx and Engels saw many flaws in Russian society and wanted to propose a new system of government to be much more equal | 2 | |
| 2343321563 | Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert, 1857 | SUBJECT: a lively young woman named Emma marries the dull Charles Bovary, of whom she quickly becomes tired, and has multiple affairs after the birth of her first child, Berthe. In the midst of these and of spats of depression, she gets into serious money trouble, loses all of her men and ends up poisoning herself. Her family dies poor. WHY WRITTEN: Flaubert is known as a perfectionist who was always searching "for the perfect word". He wanted to write a novel that was both quite realistic and entertaining. | 3 | |
| 2343657473 | A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens, 1859 | SUBJECT: London and Paris during the start of the French Revolution - a sort of comparative study between the two cities WHY WRITTEN: Dickens wished to share his beliefs on Resurrection and transformation and to compare the two different types of life in Europe at the time | 4 | |
| 2343665652 | On the Origin of Species Charles Darwin, 1859 | SUBJECT: the basis of evolution that we accept as true today; how different species came to be in the world today. WHY WRITTEN: so that common people as well as scientists and specialists could read and be educated. This led to huge debates and the popularity of Darwin's works. | 5 | |
| 2343679372 | What Is To Be Done Vladimir Lenin, 1902 | SUBJECT: an essay outlining Lenin's plan for an elite team to engineer the Communist Revolution in Russia; regarded as the Bolshevik's party WHY WRITTEN: to share his plans for the future and declare them irrefutable | 6 | |
| 2343694444 | Mein Kampf - My Struggle Adolf Hitler, 1925 | SUBJECT: an autobiography of Hitler's early life and his views on German nationality and race. WHY WRITTEN: Hitler wrote this while in prison for plotting against the Weimar Republic; written to share his beliefs that would later become the basis of the National Socialists. | 7 | |
| 2343947865 | Civilization and Its Discontents Sigmund Freud | SUBJECT: a comparison between civilized and savage humans to discover the meaning of "civilization" WHY WRITTEN: WWI influenced Freud to write, for the tensions in the world at the time were very high and the individual was not necessarily a part of civilization in his eyes | 8 | |
| 2343958195 | All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque | SUBJECT: the story of German soldier Paul Baumer during WWI; he fights in many unnamed battles. Very intense; shows the true savagery in war and how much people truly lost those they loved in war. WHY WRITTEN: to uncover the true extreme physical and mental stresses of war and the post-war emptiness | 9 | |
| 2343967699 | Being and Nothingness Jean-Paul Satre | SUBJECT: an essay on the phenomenological ontology(how experiences and conscience influence the nature of a being) WHY WRITTEN: to assert that free will exists and is real | 10 | |
| 2343973786 | The Second Sex Simon de Beauvoir | SUBJECT: examples of women being treated as lesser; reasons why and experiences of how women were treated WHY WRITTEN: to expose the poor treatment of women throughout history. Started the second wave of feminism in Europe. | 11 |
