Literary theory

Central to the creative process of the Romantic poets that followed him, Wordsworth's Preface to the Lyrical Ballads has been both a gift and a thorn in the side of critics for over a century.

A critical analysis of Spivak's classic 1988 postcolonial studies essay, in which she argues that a core problem for the poorest and most marginalized in society (the subalterns) is that they have no platform to express their concerns and no voice to affect policy debates or demand a fairer share of society's goods.

In The Wisdom of Crowds, New Yorker columnist, Surowiecki, explores the question of whether the many are better than an elite few - no matter their qualifications - at solving problems, promoting innovation and making wise decisions.

Few works can claim to form the foundation stones of one entire academic discipline, let alone two, but Thucydides's celebrated History of the Peloponnesian War is not only one of the first great works of history, but also the departure point from which the modern discipline of international relations has been built.

'The best poet in America' Jean Genet'He brought everybody down to earth, even the angels' Leonard CohenThe definitive collection from a writer whose transgressive legacy and raw, funny, acutely observant writing has left an enduring markHere is Bukowski eating walnuts and scratching his back, rolling a cigarette while listening to Brahms, showering with Linda in the mid-afternoon.

Jacques Derrida's Structure, Sign, and Play is one of the most controversial and influential philosophical texts of the 20th century.

The Defence of Poesy is the first major piece of literary criticism in English.

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Few people can claim to have had minds as fertile and creative as the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Michel Foucault's 1969 essay "e;What is an Author?

In his 1997 work Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond marshals evidence from five continents and across 13,000 years of human history in an attempt to answer the question of why that history unfolded so differently in various parts of the globe.

On Religion is a major text for the development of modern religious thought in the West and its author, German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher, is remembered as the Father of Modern Protestant Theology, as well as for his contributions to philosophy, ethics and hermeneutics.

Understanding why revolutions take place when they do, and as they do, is important in itself.

How should rulers rule?

Alasdair MacIntyre's 1981 After Virtue was a ground-breaking contribution to modern moral philosophy.

Círculo de Lectores fue uno de los proyectos editoriales de mayor envergadura y trascendencia en el ámbito del libro hispanoamericano.

In The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, neurologist Oliver Sacks looked at the cutting-edge work taking place in his field, and decided that much of it was not fit for purpose.

Frantz Fanon's explosive Black Skin, White Masks is a merciless expose of the psychological damage done by colonial rule across the world.

A critical analysis of Spivak's classic 1988 postcolonial studies essay, in which she argues that a core problem for the poorest and most marginalized in society (the subalterns) is that they have no platform to express their concerns and no voice to affect policy debates or demand a fairer share of society's goods.

The Defence of Poesy is the first major piece of literary criticism in English.

In The Rights of Others, Benhabib argues that the transnational movement of people across the globe has brought to the fore fundamental dilemmas facing liberal democracies: tension between a state's commitment to universal human rights, and to its sovereign self-determination and its claims to regulate its national borders on the other.

The Rule of St Benedict, written around 1500 years ago by the Italian monk St Benedict of Nursia, is a slim handbook for monastic life - a subject many modern readers would regard as relatively niche.

Hans Morgenthau's Politics Among Nations is a classic of political science, built on the firm foundation of Morgenthau's watertight reasoning skills.

Martin Luther King's policy of non-violent protest in the struggle for civil rights in the United States during the second half of the twentieth century led to fundamental shifts in American government policy relating to segregation, and a cultural shift in the treatment of African Americans.

Burton Malkiel's 1973 A Random Walk Down Wall Street was an explosive contribution to debates about how to reap a good return on investing in stocks and shares.

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The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction combats traditional art criticism's treatment of artworks as fixed, unchanging mystical objects.

For many centuries, the history of the crusades, as written by Western historians, was based solidly on Western sources.

Saba Mahmood's 2005 Politics of Piety is an excellent example of evaluation in action.

Sun Tzu's The Art of War is a series of lessons in the applied art of problem solving.

Friedrich Hayek's 1944 Road to Serfdom is a classic of conservative economic argument.

Few historians trace grand themes across many centuries and places, but Ernst Kantorowicz's great work on the symbolic powers of kingship is a fine example of what can happen when they do.

Empfehlung für die Anlage und die äußere Gestaltung wissenschaftlicher Manuskripte unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Titelangaben von Schrifttum.

Mary Wollstonecraft's 1792 Vindication of the Rights of Women is an incendiary attack on the place of women in 18th-century society.

Aristotle, a student of Plato, wrote Nicomachean Ethics in 350 BCE, in a time of extraordinary intellectual development.

Burton Malkiel's 1973 A Random Walk Down Wall Street was an explosive contribution to debates about how to reap a good return on investing in stocks and shares.

In The Wisdom of Crowds, New Yorker columnist, Surowiecki, explores the question of whether the many are better than an elite few - no matter their qualifications - at solving problems, promoting innovation and making wise decisions.

Judith Butler's Gender Trouble is a perfect example of creative thinking.

Our Ecological Footprint presents a powerful model for measuring humanity's impact on the Earth to reduce the harm we are causing the planet before it's too late.

Frantz Fanon is one of the most important figures in the history of what is now known as postcolonial studies - the field that examines the meaning and impacts of European colonialism across the world.

One of the primary qualities of good creative thinking is an intellectual freedom to think outside of the box.

Despite being written between 170 and 180, Marcus Aurelius' Meditations often resonates with modern readers because of its remarkable resemblance to a self-help book.

John Locke's 1689 Two Treatises of Government is a key text in the history of political theory - one whose influence remains marked on modern politics, the American Constitution and beyond.

The history of anthropology is, to a large extent, the history of differing modes of interpretation.

Thomas Paine's 1791 Rights of Man is an impassioned political tract showing how the critical thinking skills of evaluation and reasoning can, and must, be applied to contentious issues.

Many still consider Ludwig Wittgenstein's 1953 Philosophical Investigations to be one of the breakthrough works of twentieth-century philosophy.

In this book, Sedgwick examines texts from Europe and America such as Wilde, Nietzsche and Proust and considers the historical moment when sexual orientation came to be as important a signifier of personhood as gender had been for centuries.

Martin Luther King's policy of non-violent protest in the struggle for civil rights in the United States during the second half of the twentieth century led to fundamental shifts in American government policy relating to segregation, and a cultural shift in the treatment of African Americans.

A critical analysis of Karl Marx's Capital, which is without question one of the most influential books to be published in the course of the past two centuries.

No philosopher could be a better example of creative thinking in action than Friedrich Nietzsche: a German iconoclast who systematically attacked the traditionally accepted views of academic philosophers, seeking to tear down their rickety platform and replace it with a platform of his own.