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See the full list of books in the exhibition here and share your choices for future lists.
Read more about books that shaped America.
Diefendorf, Elizabeth, ed. The New York Public Library’s Books of the Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Downs, Robert B. Books That Changed America. New York: Macmillan, 1970.
Downs, Robert B. Books That Changed the South. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1977.
Fadiman, Clifton, and John S. Major. The New Lifetime Reading Plan. 4th ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.
Foster, Thomas C. Twenty-Five Books That Shaped America. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011.
Osen, Diane, ed. The Book That Shaped My Life: Interviews with National Book Award Winners and Finalists. New York: Modern Library, 2002.
Parini, Jay. Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America. New York: Doubleday, 2008.
Sabine, Gordon, and Patricia Sabine. Books That Made the Difference: What People Told Us. Hamden, CT.: Shoe String Press, 1983.