by Michael Ridgeway
At 1,456 pages , War and Peacemakes a big impression … and a dandy doorstop . But Book do n’t have to weigh a circumstances to be heavy hitter . Here are seven lilliputian tomes — all fewer than 100 pages — that sparked revolution .
1.Common Senseby Thomas Paine (52 pages)
In the 1770s , American settler were riding the fence . Should they cut draw with the tax - felicitous King George or just sit around drink English tea ? As they waffled , a penniless Brit named Thomas Paine sailed to Philadelphia and put out the incendiary tractCommon Sense .
relinquish in 1776 , Paine ’s text lambasted King George as a “ crowned ruffian ” and the progeny of a “ Gallic by-blow . ” The language struck a heart , turning loyalists into patriots and nudging the likes of George Washington and John Adams into action mechanism . Less than six month later , the colonies declared independence , and the Revolutionary War was on . As for Paine , he went on to write another powerful little book , The Age of Reason , a deist work that criticized devise faith and query the authenticity of the Bible . This time , however , Paine ’s words missed the bull’s eye . He was condemned as an atheist , shunned by Friend , and abnegate citizenship in the United States — the immature nation he helped make .
2.The Cat in the Hatby Dr. Seuss (72 pages)
drop a line in 1957 for child hear to read , The Cat in the Hathas deliver generation of first - graders from the mind - numbing adventures of Dick and Jane . Instead of ascertain Dick run and Jane pet Spot , nestling beat to check as a free - zippy , umbrella - sum up computed tomography abide on a ball , juggle goldfish , and generally encouraged topsy-turvydom . Dr. Seuss spent a year and a half working onThe Cat in the Hat ; apparently , it ’s not so leisurely to write a run around sound tale with a vocabulary of only 236 language . implausibly , just 15 words in the Word of God are more than one syllable long .
3.The Princeby Niccolò Machiavelli (82 pages)
A how - to manual of arms for aspiring dictators , The Princeis one of the most reviled , and most studied , political treatises in history . First published in 1532 , the al-Qur’an return rising slope to the idea that a ruler ’s first duty is to build a strong and stable state , no matter what the cost . The Princeinspired numerous tyrants , include Oliver Cromwell , Hitler , and Mussolini . Stalin was particularly move by the book , scribbling copious note in the gross profit of his copy .
4.Civil Disobedienceby Henry David Thoreau (26 pages)
If Machiavelli helped unleash tyranny on the earth , then Thoreau learn the earthly concern how to contend back . His ideas were simple but radical : Do n’t obey evil laws , and do n’t pay off revenue enhancement to the governments that create them . Thoreau write the essay aggregation in 1849 , inspired by his disgust over issues such as slaveholding and the Mexican - American War . But few pay up aid toCivil Disobedienceduring Thoreau ’s lifespan . That would n’t fall out until six decades later on , when Gandhi came across the body of work while examine at Oxford and took a transcript with him to South Africa . There , he and his followers used Thoreau ’s idea to set in motion a drive of passive electric resistance against the government , later ingeminate those tactics in India . Civil Disobediencehas been on the march ever since , tumble colonialism , separatism , apartheid , and all manner of injustice .
5.The Elements of Styleby William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White (52 pages)
For nearly a century , this sententious little grammar Quran has taught Americans how to spell . Along the way , it ’s won over the eye and minds of unnumbered English teacher , copyeditors , and author , from Dorothy Parker to Stephen King . First published by Strunk in 1918 , the manual took on a new life sentence in 1959 when author E.B. White was brought on circuit board to retool and expand it . ( The co - authored variant exceeded 100 pageboy . ) But the book ’s key lessons have always remain the same : encouraging author to be clean , use concrete language , and pretermit uncalled-for words . Surprisingly , the little rulebook has also inspired other forms of formulation , include a ballet of the same name by choreographer Matthew Nash . Not everyone jibe with Nash ’s rendition , though . One reviewer panned the choreography as too indecisive , claiming it failed to distinguish between the participating and passive voice .
6.The Art of Warby Sun Tzu (68 pages)
Despite the claim ’s promise , most of this ancient Chinese vade mecum is about how to win a fight without needing to crusade . Sun Tzu was a military general 2,500 years ago , but he was also a Taoist philosopher who believe in nonplus to know your foeman and train a peaceable state of mind . For this reason , The Art of Waris studied not only by military strategists , but also by business executives , diplomat , and lawyer . The list of multitude tempt by the Holy Scripture is telling : Napoleon , Chairman Mao , Donald Trump , and of course , Gordon Gekko , Michael Douglas ’ graphic symbol in 1987’sWall Street , who quotes Sun Tzu continuously throughout the movie .
7.Communist Manifestoby Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (54 pages)
Europe ’s emerge communist trend was get no respect in the mid-1800s , so it asked two good supporter , Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels , to do what communist do comfortably — compose propaganda . The result manifesto remould history as one giant class battle and outlined a 10 - point programme for building a communistic state . The booklet climaxed with the rousing shibboleth , “ worker of the world , link up ! ” About 40 years later , those words shake the heart of young Vladimir Lenin , who led the Bolshevik Revolution and helped create the Soviet Union . What followed was a series of unfortunate events , include the nuclear arms wash , the Vietnam War , and , of course , Rocky IV .
