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The Polymath's Library is a list of the best non-fiction books that explain a specific topic area (e.g., geography, history, law, biology, physics).
Please suggest and rank books, from any publication date, that you think are world class in distilling a topic area (e.g., Geography = Guns, Germs and Steel; History = The Lessons of History; Military Strategy = On War)
To guide your thinking - imagine your bright young (grand)daughter is about to go on a long and isolated journey (e.g., colonizing Mars, sailing around the world, starting a prison sentence). If her entire education had to come from the library you provided….what books would you recommend so she would return with a world class understanding of the core knowledge areas.
Please share suggestions in the following categories: Archaeology, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics, Engineering, Geography, History, Law, Mathematics, Music, Philosophy, Physics, Psychology, Statistics.
Thanks,
Dylan
Please suggest and rank books, from any publication date, that you think are world class in distilling a topic area (e.g., Geography = Guns, Germs and Steel; History = The Lessons of History; Military Strategy = On War)
To guide your thinking - imagine your bright young (grand)daughter is about to go on a long and isolated journey (e.g., colonizing Mars, sailing around the world, starting a prison sentence). If her entire education had to come from the library you provided….what books would you recommend so she would return with a world class understanding of the core knowledge areas.
Please share suggestions in the following categories: Archaeology, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics, Engineering, Geography, History, Law, Mathematics, Music, Philosophy, Physics, Psychology, Statistics.
Thanks,
Dylan
Score
A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book.
| 200 |
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From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present
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4.13 avg rating — 4,619 ratings
score: 56,
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1 person voted
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| 202 |
|
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
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4.12 avg rating — 130,149 ratings
score: 55,
and
1 person voted
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| 202 |
|
The Myths of Innovation
by
Scott Berkun (Goodreads Author)
3.85 avg rating — 4,613 ratings
score: 55,
and
1 person voted
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| 204 |
|
The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World
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4.14 avg rating — 5,127 ratings
score: 54,
and
1 person voted
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| 205 |
|
A History of Warfare
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3.98 avg rating — 4,543 ratings
score: 53,
and
1 person voted
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| 206 |
|
Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters
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4.12 avg rating — 3,165 ratings
score: 52,
and
1 person voted
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| 207 |
|
The Intelligent Investor
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4.24 avg rating — 148,289 ratings
score: 51,
and
1 person voted
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| 207 |
|
Coming of Age in the Milky Way
by
Timothy Ferris (Goodreads Author)
4.16 avg rating — 3,109 ratings
score: 51,
and
1 person voted
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| 209 |
|
Campbell Biology
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4.15 avg rating — 4,113 ratings
score: 50,
and
1 person voted
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| 210 |
|
A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World
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4.15 avg rating — 3,344 ratings
score: 49,
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1 person voted
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| 211 |
|
The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination
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4.18 avg rating — 2,618 ratings
score: 48,
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1 person voted
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| 212 |
|
Paradox: The Nine Greatest Enigmas in Physics
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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3,018 ratings
score: 47,
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1 person voted
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| 213 |
|
The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes' Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy
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3.77 avg rating — 2,772 ratings
score: 46,
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1 person voted
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| 214 |
|
Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age
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3.87 avg rating — 2,417 ratings
score: 45,
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1 person voted
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| 215 |
|
The Upright Thinkers: The Human Journey from Living in Trees to Understanding the Cosmos
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4.14 avg rating — 2,146 ratings
score: 44,
and
1 person voted
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| 216 |
|
The Penguin History of the World
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4.08 avg rating — 2,503 ratings
score: 43,
and
1 person voted
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| 217 |
|
Fundamentals of Physics
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4.13 avg rating — 2,186 ratings
score: 42,
and
1 person voted
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| 218 |
|
The Princeton Companion to Mathematics
by
Timothy Gowers (Editor)
4.41 avg rating — 1,658 ratings
score: 40,
and
1 person voted
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| 219 |
|
The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures
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3.81 avg rating — 1,639 ratings
score: 39,
and
1 person voted
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| 220 |
|
The Lives of the Great Composers
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4.28 avg rating — 1,606 ratings
score: 38,
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1 person voted
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| 221 |
|
Darwin's Ghost: The Origin of Species Updated
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3.87 avg rating — 1,513 ratings
score: 37,
and
1 person voted
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| 222 |
|
One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon
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4.14 avg rating — 1,998 ratings
score: 36,
and
1 person voted
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| 223 |
|
University Physics with Modern Physics
by
4.12 avg rating — 1,478 ratings
score: 35,
and
1 person voted
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| 224 |
|
Energy: A Human History
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3.75 avg rating — 1,858 ratings
score: 34,
and
1 person voted
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| 225 |
|
Your Money and Your Brain
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3.97 avg rating — 1,621 ratings
score: 33,
and
1 person voted
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| 226 |
|
Entanglement
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4.01 avg rating — 1,259 ratings
score: 32,
and
1 person voted
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| 227 |
|
If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens ... WHERE IS EVERYBODY?: Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life
by
4.20 avg rating — 1,448 ratings
score: 31,
and
1 person voted
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| 228 |
|
Art History
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4.23 avg rating — 1,099 ratings
score: 30,
and
1 person voted
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| 229 |
|
The Seekers: The Story of Man's Continuing Quest to Understand His World
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3.94 avg rating — 955 ratings
score: 29,
and
1 person voted
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| 230 |
|
Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance—and Why They Fall
by
Amy Chua (Goodreads Author)
3.78 avg rating — 983 ratings
score: 28,
and
1 person voted
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| 231 |
|
Big History: From the Big Bang to the Present
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3.86 avg rating — 991 ratings
score: 27,
and
1 person voted
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| 232 |
|
Human Anatomy & Physiology
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4.04 avg rating — 1,286 ratings
score: 26,
and
1 person voted
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| 233 |
|
Darwin
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4.27 avg rating — 781 ratings
score: 25,
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1 person voted
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| 234 |
|
The Birth of Plenty : How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created
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4.19 avg rating — 835 ratings
score: 24,
and
1 person voted
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| 235 |
|
The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution
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3.88 avg rating — 897 ratings
score: 23,
and
1 person voted
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| 236 |
|
Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century
by
Howard Bloom (Goodreads Author)
3.98 avg rating — 698 ratings
score: 22,
and
1 person voted
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| 237 |
|
Mathematics From The Birth Of Numbers
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4.19 avg rating — 591 ratings
score: 21,
and
1 person voted
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| 238 |
|
Evolution in Four Dimensions: Genetic, Epigenetic, Behavioral, And Symbolic Variation in the History of Life (Life And Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology And Philosophy Series)
by
4.19 avg rating — 638 ratings
score: 20,
and
1 person voted
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| 239 |
|
The Physics Book: From the Big Bang to Quantum Resurrection, 250 Milestones in the History of Physics
by
4.08 avg rating — 597 ratings
score: 19,
and
1 person voted
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| 240 |
|
Zoom: How Everything Moves: From Atoms and Galaxies to Blizzards and Bees
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3.99 avg rating — 421 ratings
score: 18,
and
1 person voted
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| 241 |
|
Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can't Explain the Modern World
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4.13 avg rating — 403 ratings
score: 17,
and
1 person voted
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| 242 |
|
Civilizations: Culture, Ambition, and the Transformation of Nature
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3.90 avg rating — 380 ratings
score: 16,
and
1 person voted
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| 243 |
|
Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium
by
4.15 avg rating — 351 ratings
score: 15,
and
1 person voted
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| 244 |
|
The Periodic Table: A Field Guide to the Elements
by
Paul Parsons (Goodreads Author)
4.11 avg rating — 365 ratings
score: 14,
and
1 person voted
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| 245 |
|
Masters of the Word: How Media Shaped History
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3.92 avg rating — 288 ratings
score: 13,
and
1 person voted
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| 246 |
|
Foragers, Farmers, and Fossil Fuels: How Human Values Evolve (The University Center for Human Values Series)
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3.69 avg rating — 329 ratings
score: 12,
and
1 person voted
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| 247 |
|
Bones, Rocks and Stars: The Science of When Things Happened
by
Chris Turney (Goodreads Author)
4.06 avg rating — 222 ratings
score: 11,
and
1 person voted
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| 248 |
|
Art Through the Ages
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3.82 avg rating — 44,719 ratings
score: 10,
and
1 person voted
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| 249 |
|
Lives of the Poets
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4.16 avg rating — 162 ratings
score: 9,
and
1 person voted
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| 250 |
|
Energy in Nature and Society: General Energetics of Complex Systems
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4.19 avg rating — 70 ratings
score: 8,
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1 person voted
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| 251 |
|
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
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4.34 avg rating — 39,013 ratings
score: 7,
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1 person voted
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| 252 |
|
The Art of War: War and Military Thought
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3.81 avg rating — 170 ratings
score: 6,
and
1 person voted
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| 253 |
|
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
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4.28 avg rating — 197,891 ratings
score: 5,
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1 person voted
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| 254 |
|
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
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4.16 avg rating — 184,243 ratings
score: 4,
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1 person voted
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| 255 |
|
The Essential Canon of Classical Music
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4.19 avg rating — 153 ratings
score: 3,
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1 person voted
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| 256 |
|
The Human Past: World History & the Development of Human Societies
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3.83 avg rating — 276 ratings
score: 2,
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1 person voted
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| 257 |
|
An Ocean of Air: a Natural History of the Atmosphere [Hardcover] [Jan 01, 2007] Gabrielle Walker
by
Gabrielle Walker (Goodreads Author)
4.16 avg rating — 573 ratings
score: 1,
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1 person voted
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257 books ·
67 voters ·
list created June 13th, 2014
by Dylan Hardy (votes) .
Anyone can add books to this list.
How to Vote
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To vote on books not in the list or books you couldn't find in the list, you can click on the tab add books to this list and then choose from your books, or simply search.
