41 1958 non fiction books

The Affluent Society is a 1958 book by Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith. The book sought to clearly outline the manner in which the post–World War II United States was becoming wealthy in the private sector but remained poor in the public sector, lacking social and physical infrastructure, and perpetuating income disparities. The book sparked much public discussion at the time. It is also credited with popularizing the term "conventional wisdom". Many of the ideas presented were later expanded and refined in Galbraith's 1967 book, The New Industrial State.

The Americans is a photographic book by Robert Frank which was highly influential in post-war American photography. It was first published in France in 1958, and the following year in the United States. The photographs were notable for their distanced view of both high and low strata of American society. The book as a whole created a complicated portrait of the period that was viewed as skeptical of contemporary values and evocative of ubiquitous loneliness. "Frank set out with his Guggenheim Grant to do something new and unconstrained by commercial diktats" and made "a now classic photography book in the iconoclastic spirit of the Beats".

The Art of Cricket is an instructional book on the game of cricket written by Sir Don Bradman in 1958. It is illustrated with black-and-white photographs and diagrams.

Back o' Cairns: : The Story of Gold Prospecting in the Far North is a 1958 autobiographical book by Ion Idriess. It is based on his adventures looking for gold in the Cape York Peninsula.

The Balkans Since 1453 is a book by the Greek-Canadian historian L.S. Stavrianos published in 1958. It is a large, synthetic work which encompasses the major political, economic and cultural events of the Balkans from the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the late 1940s.

The Battle for One Destiny is a political theory literature book of 1958 that composes a combined volume of the writings and chiefly editorial articles of Ba'athist leader Michel Aflaq. The book argues that Western imperialism and Zionism are the greatest impediments to pan-Arab unity.

Brighter than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists, by Austrian Robert Jungk, is the first published account of the Manhattan Project and the German atomic bomb project.

The Call Girl is a best seller of 1958 written by the doctor Harold Greenwald, a psychotherapist whose doctoral dissertation is about the psychology of prostitutes. In 1960, he made a Hollywood movie on the same topic, Girl of the Night.

The Capitalist Manifesto is a 1958 book by Louis O. Kelso, a lawyer-economist and Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) inventor, and Mortimer J. Adler, a neo-Thomist philosopher. Kelso and Adler detail the three principles of economic justice, Participation, Distribution, and Limitation. These principles laid the foundation of what eventually came to be called “binary economics.” The term “binary” comes from attributing all production (participation) and just distribution of income to two factors, the human, classified as labor, and the non-human, classified as capital. In the Preface, Adler acknowledged Kelso as the originator of the theory.

Commentaries on Living: From the notebooks of J. Krishnamurti is a series of books by Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986). It consists of 3 volumes, originally published in 1956, 1958 and 1960.

The Computer and the Brain is an unfinished book by mathematician John von Neumann, begun shortly before his death and first published in 1958. Von Neumann was an important figure in computer science, and the book discusses how the brain can be viewed as a computing machine. The book is speculative in nature, but von Neumann discusses several important differences between brains and computers of his day, as well as suggesting directions for future research.

Culture and Society is a book published in 1958 by Welsh progressive writer Raymond Williams, exploring how the notion of culture developed in Great Britain, from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries.

The Edge of Tomorrow is a 1958 book by American physician Thomas A. Dooley about his humanitarian mission Operation Laos in the country of Laos. Dooley wrote about the "shaky beginnings" of his team's formation in the Laotian capital of Vientiane and the team's trips to Vang Vieng and Nam Tha, from which he had a "triumphant departure". James T. Fisher, who published a biography about Dooley, said, "The Edge of Tomorrow was even more successful than [Dooley's previous book] Deliver Us from Evil; a best-seller, it also won virtually universal critical acclaim." Seth Jacobs, writing in a chapter of Making Sense of the Vietnam Wars, said, "The Edge of Tomorrow and [Dooley's other book] The Night They Burned the Mountain, attracted almost as wide a readership as Dooley's debut." The United States Information Agency distributed The Edge of Tomorrow globally "as part of its cultural diplomacy efforts".

Ethnologue: Languages of the World is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It was first issued in 1951, and is now published annually by SIL International, a U.S.-based, worldwide, Christian non-profit organization. SIL's main purpose is to study, develop and document languages to promote literacy and for religious purposes.

Focus is an encyclopedia first published in Swedish in five volumes 1958–1960, later extended with additional volumes, republished in several editions, and translated to Danish, Norwegian, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. Based on inspiration from the richly illustrated 1947 edition of the American World Book Encyclopedia, the plan for Focus as conceived by Sven Lidman was based on two principles:a set of highly instructional and internationally reusable illustrations should be produced first, to which text could be written later in various languages, and the basic encyclopedia should be compact to which specialized add-on volumes from a series could be combined, making it easier to cover different market segments.

The Grey Seas Under is a non-fiction book by Canadian author Farley Mowat about the Atlantic Salvage Tug Foundation Franklin, operated by the firm Foundation Maritime in Canada's Maritime provinces from 1930 to 1948.

Have You Lived Before This Life is a non-fiction book published by L. Ron Hubbard in 1958. It was one of the canonical texts of Scientology,

Here I Stand is a 1958 book written by Paul Robeson with the collaboration of Lloyd L. Brown. While Robeson wrote many articles and speeches, Here I stand is his only book. It has been described as part manifesto, part autobiography. It was published by Othello Associates and dedicated to his wife Eslanda Goode Robeson.

A History of the English-Speaking Peoples is a four-volume history of Britain and its former colonies and possessions throughout the world, written by Winston Churchill, covering the period from Caesar's invasions of Britain to the end of the Second Boer War (1902). It was started in 1937 and finally published 1956–58, delayed several times by war and his work on other texts. The volumes have been abridged into a single-volume, concise edition.

The Human Condition, first published in 1958, is Hannah Arendt's account of how "human activities" should be and have been understood throughout Western history. Arendt is interested in the vita activa as contrasted with the vita contemplativa and concerned that the debate over the relative status of the two has blinded us to important insights about the vita activa and the way in which it has changed since ancient times. She distinguishes three sorts of activity and discusses how they have been affected by changes in Western history.

In Flanders Fields: The 1917 Campaign is a history of the Third Battle of Ypres by Leon Wolff, published in 1958, with an introduction by Maj. Gen. J. F. C. Fuller, CB, CBE, DSO. In 1960, Readers Union Ltd published an edition produced by Longmans, Green & Co. for sale to its members only. In 1963, a re-edition of the book was included in the Time-Life Reading Program, with an additional introduction by B. H. Liddell-Hart. In 1979, a Penguin Books edition was published "with minor emendations". Based on this, in 2003 Cambridge University Press published a "Folio Society" edition.

Irrational Man: A Study In Existential Philosophy is a 1958 book by the philosopher William Barrett, in which the author explains the philosophical background of existentialism and provides a discussion of several major existentialist thinkers, including Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Irrational Man helped to introduce existentialism to the English-speaking world and has been identified as one of the most useful books that discuss the subject, but Barrett has also been criticized for endorsing irrationality and for giving a distorted and misleading account of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

Lamps of Fire - the Spirit of Religions is an anthology of religious writings compiled, and often translated, by Juan Mascaró.

The Lightning and the Sun is a 1958 book by Savitri Devi Mukherji, in which the author outlines her philosophy of history along with her critique of the modern world. The book is known for the author's claim that Adolf Hitler was an avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu.

Mahabharata is a historical book retold by C. Rajagopalachari. It was first published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in 1958. This book is an abridged English retelling of Vyasa's Mahabharata. Rajaji considered this book and his Ramayana to be his greatest service to his countrymen.

Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese is a travel book by English author Patrick Leigh Fermor, published in 1958. It covers his journey with wife Joan and friend Xan Fielding around the Mani peninsula in southern Greece.

Marxism and Freedom: from 1776 Until Today is a 1958 book by the philosopher and activist Raya Dunayevskaya, the first volume of her 'Trilogy of Revolution'.

The Moral Basis of a Backward Society is a book by Edward C. Banfield, a political scientist who visited Montegrano, Italy in 1955. He observed a self-interested, family-centric society, which sacrificed the public good for the sake of nepotism and the immediate family. As an American, Banfield was witnessing what was to become infamous as the Southern Italian Mafias and a self-centered clan-system promoting the well-being of their inner group at the expense of the other ones. Banfield postulated that the backwardness of such a society could be explained "largely but not entirely" by "the inability of the villagers to act together for their common good or, indeed, for any end transcending the immediate, material interest of the nuclear family."

Mormon Doctrine is an encyclopedic work written in 1958 by Bruce R. McConkie, a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was intended primarily for a Latter-day Saint audience and has been used as a reference book by church members because of its comprehensive nature, and was a highly influential all-time bestseller in the LDS community. It has never been an official publication of the church, and it has been both heavily criticized by some church leaders and members and well regarded by others. After the book's first edition was removed from publication at the instruction of the church's First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve, corrections were made in subsequent editions. The book went through three editions but has been out of print since 2010.

The Naked Communist is a 1958 book by American political theorist W. Cleon Skousen, a former FBI employee. The book has been reprinted several times, most recently in a 2017 printing through Izzard Ink Publishing, and it has sold more than 1 million copies.

A Nation of Immigrants (ISBN 978-0-06-144754-9) is a 1958 book on American immigration by then U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Persian Inscriptions on Indian Monuments is a book written in Persian by Dr Ali Asghar Hekmat E Shirazi and published in 1956 and 1958 and 2013. new edition contains the Persian texts of more than 200 epigraphical inscriptions found on historical monuments in India, many of which are currently listed as national heritage sites or registered as UNESCO world heritage, published in Persian; an English edition is also being printed.

The Poetics of Space is a 1958 book about architecture by the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard. The book is considered an important work about art. Commentators have compared Bachelard's views to those of the philosopher Martin Heidegger.

Pregnancy, Birth and Abortion is a 1958 book about human pregnancy by the anthropologist Paul Gebhard, the sexologist Wardell Pomeroy, the sexologist Clyde Martin, and Cornelia Christenson. It was a publication of the Institute for Sex Research. The work was prepared and written with careful attention to sampling, methodology and date interpretation, to demonstrate the Institute's scientific competence despite the death of Alfred Kinsey and to answer the criticism that the Institute was interested only in popular, moneymaking books. Though it did not receive the public acceptance of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, the work was well received in scientific circles, and demonstrated that the Institute could survive as a productive research organization.

La Question is a book by Henri Alleg, published in 1958. It is famous for precisely describing the methods of torture used by French paratroopers during the Algerian War from the point of view of a victim. La Question was censored in France after selling 60,000 copies in two weeks.

A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush is a 1958 book by the English travel writer Eric Newby. It is an autobiographical account of his adventures in the Hindu Kush, around the Nuristan mountains of Afghanistan, ostensibly to make the first mountaineering ascent of Mir Samir. Critics have found it comic, intensely English, and understated. It has sold over 500,000 copies in paperback.

Soviet Marxism: A Critical Analysis is a 1958 book by the philosopher Herbert Marcuse, in which the author provides a critique of the Ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It received positive reviews, describing it as a convincing discussion of its subject.

Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story is Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic account of the 1955–56 Montgomery bus boycott. The book describes the conditions of African Americans living in Alabama during the era, and chronicles the events and participant's planning and thoughts about the boycott and its aftermath.

The Theory of Evolution is a book by English evolutionary biologist and geneticist John Maynard Smith, originally published in 1958 in time for 150th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the centenary of the publication of The Origin of Species the following year. It serves as a general introduction to the eponymous subject, intended to be accessible to those with little technical knowledge of the area. It has been highly successful, considered by many as the definitive publication of its type. The original version was updated several times, and a Canto edition, with a foreword by Richard Dawkins, and newly written introduction by the author, was published in 1996.

’Twixt Twelve and Twenty is a book by Pat Boone which offered advice to teenagers.

Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History is a 1958 book by the psychologist Erik Erikson. It was one of the first psychobiographies of a famous historical figure. Erikson found in Martin Luther a good model of his discovery of "the identity crisis". Erikson was sure he could explain Luther's spontaneous eruption, during a monastery choir practice, "I am not!"