The Selfish Gene is that rarest of things: an outstanding work of scholarship that has seeped into popular culture.

Published in 1994, The Bell Curve caused uproar. Herrnstein and Murray claim that intelligence is the key factor in determining success in life and that it is genetic and, more controversially still, that some ethnic groups are more intelligent than others.

Before the publication of Nature's Metropolis in 1991, historians generally treated urban and rural areas as distinct from one another, following separate lines of development and maturity.

A game-changer when it was first published in 1961, Who Governs? remains one of the most influential political science books ever written.

Because the potential returns appear to be greater in poorer countries than in the developed world, modern economic theory implies that rich countries should continually invest in poor countries until returns balance out. But this doesn't happen - and economist Robert E. Lucas Jr. asked why in his ground-breaking 1990 article on what has become known as the Lucas paradox.

In his highly influential 1996 book, Huntington offers a vision of a post-Cold War world in which conflict takes place not between competing ideologies but between cultures.

There is arguably no more famous book about the arts of interpretation and analysis than Sigmund Freud's 1899 Interpretation of Dreams. Though Freud's theories have often been criticized, he remains the undisputed master of interpretation - with his critics suggesting that he was, if anything, too ingenious for his own good.

Simone de Beauvoir's 1949 book The Second Sex is a masterpiece of feminist criticism and philosophy. An incendiary take on the place of women in post-war French society, it helped define major trends in feminist thought for the rest of the 20th century, and its influence is still felt today.

Soren Kierkegaard's The Sickness unto Death is widely recognized as one of the most significant and influential works of Christian philosophy written in the nineteenth century. One of the cornerstones of Kierkegaard's reputation as a writer and thinker, the book is also a masterclass in the art of interpretation.

More than a classic work on the history and philosophy of science, Kuhn's 1962 book is considered by many to be one of the greatest works of the 20th century. Kuhn helped change the way everyone looks at science.