The 100 best books about war and conflict

No. 11 on this list. Beowulf · Anonymous

The oldest surviving long poem in Old English transforms a Scandinavian hero's monster-fights into a meditation on the transience of glory and the duty of a leader to spend his life for his people. Its recovery from a single fire-damaged manuscript preserved the founding work of English-language literary tradition.

No. 12 on this list. The War of the Worlds · H.G. Wells · 1898

Taught in schools: OCR GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), Pearson Edexcel GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), WJEC/Eduqas GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

The War of the Worlds is a cornerstone of science fiction, taught widely in literature and science fiction courses. While not as universally assigned as 1984 or Brave New World, it appears regularly in surveys of speculative fiction, Victorian literature, and science fiction history. The novel's influence on the genre ensures its continued academic presence.

No. 13 on this list. The Miser · Molière · 1668

Taught in schools: Lektury obowiązkowe – Polish national reading list (Poland), UNAM Escuela Nacional Preparatoria – programas de Literatura (Mexico)

Included in: Great Books of the Western World

The Miser is a staple of French literature and world theater curricula across universities globally, ranking among the most performed and studied comedies of the Western canon. While no syllabus count is in the database, it appears consistently on comparative literature, French studies, and drama course lists. Its presence in world literature anthologies across dozens of languages reflects its canonical standing.

No. 14 on this list. Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History · Art Spiegelman · 1991

Maus is widely taught in schools and universities as a central Holocaust text and as the key work of the graphic novel, and it won a Pulitzer Prize special award in 1992 for the combined work. It is now standard in comics studies and memory studies.

No. 15 on this list. Coriolanus · William Shakespeare · 1608

Included in: Great Books of the Western World

Coriolanus is a standard text in Shakespeare curricula and appears on university syllabi in courses on Renaissance drama, political philosophy, and history plays. While taught less frequently than Hamlet, Macbeth, or King Lear, it is required reading in most advanced Shakespeare courses and political drama studies. Its engagement with popular sovereignty and class politics has made it a recurring subject of academic attention.

No. 16 on this list. The Clouds · Aristophanes · c. 423 BCE

Taught in schools: Lektury obowiązkowe – Polish national reading list (Poland)

Included in: Great Books of the Western World

The Clouds appears on virtually every classical literature and ancient philosophy syllabus, often assigned alongside Plato's Apology — which explicitly names the play as contributing to popular sentiment against Socrates. It is one of only eleven surviving plays by Aristophanes, and among those, one of the most studied. No book with this syllabus footprint in classics departments falls below 85.

No. 17 on this list. The Seagull · Anton Chekhov · 1896

Taught in schools: Hungarian literature curriculum (magyar nyelv és irodalom) (Hungary), Russian FGOS literature standard

One of Chekhov's four major plays and a permanent part of the world repertory and of drama syllabi. Its 1898 Moscow Art Theatre revival is the founding event of that theatre, which still carries a seagull on its curtain.

No. 18 on this list. Collected Stories · William Faulkner · 1951

Collected Stories won the National Book Award in 1951 and remains central to American short fiction canon. These stories appear regularly in anthologies and academic syllabi. While perhaps overshadowed by Faulkner's novels, the collection represents an essential component of his Yoknapatawpha saga and demonstrates his mastery across forms.

No. 19 on this list. A Farewell to Arms · Ernest Hemingway · 1929

Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), Common Core text exemplars (Appendix B) (US), CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council

Included in: UNESCO Collection of Representative Works

A Farewell to Arms secured canonical status immediately upon publication in 1929, establishing itself as a foundational modernist war narrative and remains a standard text in American literature curricula. Its influence on subsequent war fiction and its representation of the Lost Generation make it exemplary of early 20th-century literary achievement.

No. 20 on this list. W, or the Memory of Childhood · Georges Perec · 1975

A firm fixture in the OuLiPo canon and in broader European literary canons. Regularly taught in comparative literature, Holocaust literature, and postmodern fiction courses internationally. Less widely read than some contemporaries but deeply influential among serious readers and writers.

No. 21 on this list. The Wild Duck · Henrik Ibsen · 1884

Taught in schools: Hungarian literature curriculum (magyar nyelv és irodalom) (Hungary)

Included in: Great Books of the Western World

The Wild Duck is a cornerstone of the Western dramatic canon, taught in virtually every university drama program and included in all standard collections of world theater. Though the database returns no syllabus count, Ibsen is the most taught non-English-language playwright in English-speaking universities, and this play—alongside Hedda Gabler and A Doll's House—appears on every major drama syllabus. It is consistently ranked among Ibsen's finest works and among the ten most important plays of the nineteenth century.

No. 22 on this list. The Tale of the Heike · Anonymous

Japan's national epic, equivalent to the Iliad in the Western canon. Foundational to Japanese literature, taught universally in Japanese curricula, and central to understanding Japanese cultural identity. The work has influenced Japanese aesthetics for seven centuries, codifying concepts like mono no aware. Its canonical status is absolute and unchallenged within Japanese literary tradition, comparable only to The Tale of Genji in cultural importance.

No. 23 on this list. Age of Iron · J.M. Coetzee · 1990

Age of Iron occupies a secure place in the Coetzee canon alongside Disgrace and Waiting for the Barbarians, and is regularly included in postcolonial and South African literature curricula worldwide. Its apartheid-era historical weight gives it documentary as well as aesthetic canonical status.

No. 24 on this list. In Our Time · Ernest Hemingway · 1925

In Our Time is widely taught in American literature survey courses as the foundational text of Hemingway's iceberg style. It appears on thousands of university syllabi and is the required starting point for understanding modernist short fiction in America. The Modern Library and most major American literature curricula treat it as essential.

No. 25 on this list. The Complete Maus · Art Spiegelman · 2003

Widely taught in universities and high schools as the defining Holocaust graphic memoir, Maus appears on hundreds of literature and history syllabi worldwide. It is listed on virtually every major 'essential reading' and 'greatest books' compilation that includes graphic literature, from the Modern Library to Time's All-TIME 100 Novels. While not on syllabi at the scale of Fitzgerald or Austen, it holds unique canonical status as the book that forced academia to take comics seriously.

No. 26 on this list. Slaughterhouse-Five · Kurt Vonnegut · 1999

One of the most widely taught American novels of the twentieth century, in high school and university courses on war literature and postmodern fiction. Its 1969 text is the standard for anti-war reading lists.

No. 27 on this list. The Red Badge of Courage · Stephen Crane · 2006

The novel is a staple of American high school and college courses and a foundational war novel. Its 2006 date reflects an edition of a 1895 classic.

No. 28 on this list. Personae · Ezra Pound · 1926

Personae is a standard text in modernist poetry curricula worldwide and appears in virtually every major anthology of 20th-century poetry. Though no database syllabus data was returned, Pound's first collection is foundational to understanding Imagism and the troubadour influence on Anglo-American modernism. It is overshadowed in syllabi by the later Cantos and by Eliot, but remains required reading in modernist poetry courses.

No. 29 on this list. Poem Without a Hero · Anna Akhmatova · 1960

Requiem and Poem Without a Hero are canonical texts of 20th-century Russian literature and essential documents of Stalinist-era witness poetry — required reading in Russian literature courses worldwide. No database records appear for this English translation's syllabus presence, but the works are universally taught in courses on Soviet literature, women's writing, and poetry of witness. The Wikipedia absence in this database likely reflects a data gap rather than actual obscurity: Akhmatova's works are foundational to Russian studies curricula.

No. 30 on this list. The Zoo Story · Edward Albee · 1959

A foundational work of American avant-garde theater and Albee's debut. Widely taught, anthologized, and performed as a landmark one-act play.