1984 — George Orwell (1949)

George Orwell's dystopian masterpiece gave the English language "Big Brother," "Newspeak," "doublethink," and "thoughtcrime" — concepts so precisely articulated that they remain essential vocabulary for political analysis 75 years later. Written in 1948 as Orwell was dying of tuberculosis, it remains the most prescient political novel of the 20th century and one of the most widely read books in history.