Battle of the texts: which books changed the world?
December 26, 2025
40 min
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1,887 of 2,031

December 26, 2025
Battle of the texts: which books changed the world?
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The Economist Episodes Around December 26, 2025
Episode 1,887 of 2,031 — walk the feed in the order it was published.
40:56This episodeBattle of the texts: which books changed the world?
Summary
<p>So many books are published each year; few stand the test of time. Today we devote our whole show to asking which works have shaped the way we behave and how we think. Picks include “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, “A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth and “Lord of the Rings” by JRR Tolkien.</p><br /><p>Full list of books mentioned in the show:</p><p>The Bible</p><p>The Koran</p><p>“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen </p><p>“The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins</p><p>“On the Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin</p><p>“Il Saggiatore” by Galileo Galilei</p><p>“Two New Sciences” by Galileo Galilei</p><p>“Capital in the Twenty-First Century” by Thomas Piketty</p><p>“Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman</p><p>The novels of Philip Pullman</p><p>The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling</p><p>“The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie</p><p>“Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley</p><p>“A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth </p><p>“Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien </p><p>“A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf</p><hr /><p style="color: grey; font-size: 0.75em;"> Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: grey;" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>
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