Books changing the world

Okay, guys, time to get your thinking caps on. I'm looking for examples of books that have changed the world, or at least done good, in some way or another. Examples would be books inspiring a charity event, or authors donating proceeds of their book to charity.

So far, the only example I have is the Harry Potter Alliance, a charity group based on parallels from the HP universe.

Any ideas, guys? It would help me a bunch.

Thanks,

Amy

John Green, the author of Looking For Alaska, does a ton of charity work with his fans, called Nerdfighters. The only issue with this is that he does that charity work through his Vlog subscribers on youtube, and not so much his novel fanbase. But if you're generous about where to draw the line, he's a great guy to check into.

Unfortunately it's part of a presentation I'm doing on books and why they aren't obsolete, so bringing t'internet into this probably doesn't fit well with my section. Props for Nerdfighteria, though.

If you could bring the internet into it, nanowrimo does a lot of things in the classrooms.

Robinson Crusoe, was a very important book. It's author Daniel Defoe is considered one of the first English novelists, without people like him there would be no novels at all.

The bible has caused much charity work to be done! Not sure if it counts though.

I need to finish Spun Yarn... that would be an awesome example. Maybe you can introduce it in your project as an up-and-coming book? You did help write in it, after all. Never mind... had you confused with another member with a similar name, lol. My memory sucks.

Well, if non-fictional literature counts you could look at something like Tony Blair's memoirs (A Journey - all the proceeds were given to a sporting centre for injured soldiers), as an example. But then if you're interested in other kinds of non-fiction, then it goes on and on; Wilde's The Soul of Man Under Socialism, Benjamin Disraeli's Sybil (Fiction - by Conservative Victorian PM who did a great deal for workers' rights and the management of capitalism) and so much of the Victorian literature about women's rights (Mill, Ruskin), trade unionism etc, all fought the case for civil and economic equality. In that case, you've got other books like Gaskell's North and South. Orwell inspired the case against Stalinism and totalitarianism, very prescient of the development of the Cold War. Even, of course, Darwin's On the Origin of Species, though that's perhaps less relevant.

And then there's Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, which provoked a jihad against him in the 1980s/90s. Whether not not that's a good thing, it certainly shows that fiction isn't obsolete!

Oh! Terry Pratchett's fame has allowed him to do a ton of charity work for Alzheimer's and pushing the case for euthanasia. Wilfred Owen and all the war poets showed the horrors of war; on that note, you could contrast it to all the writers who signed up for war propaganda during the Great War.

What else...? I don't know. Just some ideas for you. =)

I believe a lot of religious writings has caused much good in the world, look up some books like the Christian Bible, Muslim Quran/Koran, and Buddhist books.