Free Books That Inspired Martin Luther King, Jr.

By Jason Boog 

As Americans celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we have collected links to free digital editions of the books that inspired the life and writings of Martin Luther King, Jr..

We’ve included some of his favorite books, but King also taught a Seminar In Social Philosophy at Morehouse College in 1961. We found the complete outline of his syllabus at The King Center’s massive archive.

Follow these links to explore more free eBooks at Project Gutenberg: our 50 Free eBooks To Be Thankful For list, our Free Books for Halloween collection, our Free Herman Melville books list, our Free Edgar Allan Poe books collection, our Downton Abbey poetry reading list, our Free Bram Stoker collection and our Free Books That Inspired David Foster Wallace list and Free Books Neil deGrasse Tyson Thinks Everybody Should Read.

Books That Inspired Martin Luther King, Jr.

Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau

The Bible

Republic by Plato (Books I, II, V, VI, VIII, and X)

Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle (Books I, II, III, IV and V)

Politics by Aristotle (Books I and III)

The City of God by Augustine (“on the law of Heaven and Earth”)

Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas

The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli

Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes (“Of the Natural Condition of Mankind”)

Treatises on Civil Government by John Locke

The Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau

Critique of Practical Reason by Immanuel Kant

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich] Hegel (1770-1831) Selections from [Underlined: Philosophy of Right]

Principles of Morals and Legislation by Jeremy Bentham

Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill