What novels have had a substantial real-world effect?

[MsAmerica]

What novels have had such a powerful impact that they triggered an actual change in socio-political policies or overall public opinion on an important subject?

I can only think of two, offhand:
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair Any others?

As far as I know, books like Grapes of Wrath may have had enthusiasts, but by the time it came out, it was too late for any relevant policy. And I know that Dickens may have influenced public policy, but I don’t think it was due to a particular novel.

I think Oliver Twist probably had a significant impact.

Did something actually change - in terms of orphans, or something like that?

Thus spoke Zarathustra
All quiet on the western front
Dr Zhivago
From the earth to the moon

Certainly created pressure for reform of Poor Laws, which did happen. Similarly Little Dorrit fuelled demands to abolish debtors' prisons, and the law changed about ten years later.

No Name by Wilkie Collins helped changed the laws around inheritance by illegitimate children. I have a feeling The Woman in White had an effect on the laws around asylums. Like Dickens his novels were incredibly popular and so changed the conversation in the same way that TV shows like Adolescence have in the present day.

More trivially Shirley by Charlotte Bronte changed Shirley from a boys name to a girls name.

I think George Orwell 1984 and Animal Farm have had an impact on our political understanding and are often referenced in modern culture. Not sure if these books had an impact at the time they were published

Black Beauty had a big impact on animal welfare at the time (people who don’t know it can be surprised by how dark it is)

AJ Cronin’s book The Citadel has been credited with the creation of the NHS.

Yes, bearing reins were banned as a direct result of the book.

No MP stood up in parliament introduced a bill in honour of Oliver Twist but I think it had a significant impact on public attitudes. I cant provide chapter & verse without doing research but its cited often as being important.

And on impact of Grapes of Wrath www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2020/ten-things-you-might-not-know-about-grapes-wrath#:~:text=Fiction%20in%201940.-,Did%20you%20know%E2%80%A6?,law%20reforms%20and%20wage%20regulation.

Obviously U.S. based but to kill a mockingbird bird by Harper Lee ( and the movie) was influential in the civil rights movement.

I think some books neatly distill social ideas and so make it easier for people to see the cautionary tale within them. They also create a shared experience and ideas that can be more easily referred to which I think have made some political arguments more persuasive to more people. Many of the Orwellian books and other dystopian ones are really influential in this way.

They say that Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand has had a huge influence on many MAGA aligned libertarians over the years.

I meant to add - thank you for starting this thread! I sometimes lament at all the important books I haven’t read!

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe was published in 1958 just before the major wave on independence for African nations. It was very widely read and had a massive impact on understanding as it was the first novel by an African (Nigerian) read by many people outside Africa.

Me too!!

I think Roots, though it turned out to be fiction not biography, opened a lot of white people's eyes to the depth of evil of the slave trade, which probably eventually worked through into huge support for the BLM movement.

Exodus by Leon Uris. Emotionally manipulative and historically inaccurate. It must have induced millions to fall for Zionist agendas.

@MsAmerica The South African equivalent of Uncle Sam’s Cabin would probably be Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton as if humanised the people affected by apartheid an shone a light on what was going on in SA. It was very widely read even in the UK and US.

An old one, but Émile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau was very influential in education.

@SharonEllis - Yes! Things Fall Apart is such a masterpiece and so succinct in the ideas it gets across. I often think about that book - especially as I grew up in a UK colony.

Maybe a bit more frivolous, but I recall reading that A Christmas Carol by Dickens has been credited with the creation of the idea of a white Christmas.

It hardly ever snows on Christmas Day, but Dickens’ childhood coincided with a ‘little ice age’ when it snowed at Christmas for several consecutive years, and because of the influence of his work, his experience of white christmases became the cultural image of a traditional Christmas.

I was thinking of Cry, the Beloved Country. Funnily enough I read it around the same time as Grapes of Wrath and both had a huge impact on me. It was widely read for sure but it came out just before apartheid was consolidated and decades before it was dismantled so its effect was more in galvanising AA action there and abroad I think but didnt really have a chance to change anything.

Hang on, have I walked into CITME by accident? I wasn't expecting antisemitism here.

Exodus was particularly impactful in the Soviet Union where it was secretly translated and galvanised those Jews who escaped and the movement to support their agenda of human rights and freedom outside, especially in the United States.