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Originally Posted by AnotherCat
The Second Sex, Beloved and A Sand County Almanac seem to me to be of a PC selection persuasion or otherwise representing the pet favorites of the list makers rather than being based on a strong knowledge of literature, the sciences, political science, economics, etc. For example, the Second Sex and Beloved are both feminist oriented (so were the book choosers unbiased?), and who knows anything of The Sand County Almanac beyond environmental activists? They are also not well known (as HarryT has alluded to).
I would suggest that there are multitudes of books that have changed the world more than those with respect to feminism; I will swerve away from a definite nomination due to my compromised position of being a rather dated male but I see books that I would have thought have been more influential, and certainly much better known than The Second Sex.
As to other books and just sticking with ones that have been mentioned already here, the omission of Newton's Principia is a surprise to me (although I suspect that the Principia is going to be a rather hard read for and despite its importance beyond the visible horizon of most book list compilers).
And while I am no lover of Silent Spring I would have thought it much more influential for an environmental pick (I regard it as overwritten towards being activist rather than ever being reliable scientifically or politically. And I felt that way even back around 1970 when I first read it, and so then not influenced by the more recent criticism of it).
Then, if novels are to be included e.g. Beloved, what is more important from the influencing world change point of view, a specific novel itself or the books that precipitated the concept of a novel. For example, The Epic of Gilgamesh (albeit that was originally on clay, not paper) and Robinson Crusoe; do we give more importance with respect to changing the world to recent novels or to those books that created the world of literature that novels now live in?
So, from my perspective, just another list for the trash can.
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Better to be a dated male than an undated male!
Why do you say that Robinson Crusoe should be included? It was certainly a great novel, by I don't know that it changed the world. For that matter, I don't really think that Shakespeare changed the world per se. Really, it's hard to think of a novel that changed the world. Uncle Tom's Cabin, perhaps?