Certain events in history have had an effect on the books written during that time period, enacting change in the popular genre of a time period. More specifically, what people were reading changed along with which authors reigned most popular. Events that affected books range from the first moon landing to world wars. The content of books seems to consistently follow events of the world.

For example, the 2000s and 2010s saw a surge in the popularity of dystopian literature, like “The Hunger Games.” Many of these titles’ plots directly correlated with current issues plaguing society. Another notable example of this is Nixon’s Watergate scandal in the 1970’s. Many books that documented it in detail made it the top of bestseller lists.

Overall, parallels with major events can be found in a vast majority of books written during any time period.