Quite possibly the most subversive thing ever written by a Young Hegelian, this book got under Marx and Engels’ skins so much that they wrote a 700-page-plus refutation of it, The German Ideology. Stirner’s point is that the individual should be the primary focus of social relationships. This concept appeals to both the left and right; however, anyone who would call himself a “Stirnerite” is either an idiot or misses the point. Cited by everyone from bomb-toting anarchists to limp-wristed Libertarians, consistently misinterpreted, and influential on such varied people as Friedrich Nietzsche and Guy Debord, The Ego and Its Own is a must-read for anyone who is interested in anti-authoritarian politics. SC

Publisher: Rebel
Paperback: 366 pages