The Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction was created in 1998 by the

Modern Library The Modern Library is an American book publishing imprint and formerly the parent company of Random House. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, Modern Library became an ...

. The list is what it considers to be the 100 best non-fiction books published since 1900. The list included memoirs, textbooks,

polemics Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...

, and collections of essays. A separate list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century was created the same year. The following table shows the top ten books from the editors' list:100 Best Nonfiction
Modern Library A list chosen by readers was published separately by Modern Library in 1999. With close to 200,000 votes, ''

The Virtue of Selfishness ''The Virtue of Selfishness: A New Concept of Egoism'' is a 1964 collection of essays by the philosopher Ayn Rand and the writer Nathaniel Branden. Most of the essays originally appeared in '' The Objectivist Newsletter''. The book covers ethica ...

'' by

Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...

was selected as the best non-fiction book. Two other titles related to Rand – '' Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand'' and '' Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life'' – were No. 3 and No. 6, respectively. The Reader's Poll has been cited by

Harry Binswanger Harry Binswanger (; born 1944) is an American philosopher. He is an Objectivist and a board member of the Ayn Rand Institute. He was an associate of Ayn Rand, working with her on ''The Ayn Rand Lexicon'' and helping her edit the second edition ...

, a longtime associate of Rand and promoter of her work, as representative of "the clash between the intellectual establishment and the American people." However,

Jesse Walker Jesse Walker (born September 4, 1970) is books editor of ''Reason'' magazine. The University of Michigan alumnus has written the books ''The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory'' (HarperCollins, 2013) and ''Rebels on the Air: An Alter ...

, writing in ''Reason'' magazine, has observed that the Reader's Poll is an example of the unreliability of internet polls and their tendency to overemphasize the opinions of small but especially devoted groups.

References

External links

The Modern Library list
{{DEFAULTSORT:Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction 1998 establishments in the United States Awards established in 1998 American non-fiction literary awards Top book lists