Book Name
The 100 A Ranking Of The Most Influential Persons In History By Michael H. Hart
Author Michael Hart’s
Book Publishers A Citadel Press Book Carol Publishing Group
Publish Date 2000
Language. English
Category English Novel History
Book Code 238
Pages 591
Rs 1200
Book Quality Black Paper
Whatsapp +92312-9775152
E-mail onlinebookshop.pk@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION
In his book Letters on the English, Voltaire relates that during
his stay in England, in 1726, he overheard some learned men dis-
cussing the question: who was the greatest man-Caesar, Alex-
ander, Tamerlane, or Cromwell? One speaker maintained that
Sir Isaac Newton was beyond a doubt the greatest man. Voltaire
agreed with this judgment, for: "It is to him who masters our
minds by the force of truth, and not to those who enslave them
by violence, that we owe our reverence."
Whether Voltaire was truly convinced that Sir Isaac New-
ton was the greatest man who ever lived or was simply trying to
make a philosophical point, the anecdote raises an interesting
question: of the billions of human beings who have populated the
earth, which persons have most influenced the course of history?
This book presents my own answer to that question, my list
of the 100 persons in history whom I believe to have been the
most influential. I must emphasize that this is a list of the most
influential persons in history, not a list of the greatest. For exam-
ple, there is room in my list for an enormously influential, wick-
ed, and heartless man like Stalin, but no place at all for the saint-
ly Mother Cabrini.
This book is solely involved with the question of who were
the 100 persons \vho had the greatest effect on history and on the
course of the world. I have ranked these 100 persons in order of
importance: that is, according to the total amount of influence
that each of them had on human history and on the everyday
lives of other human beings. Such a group of exceptional people,
whether noble or reprehensible, famous or obscure, flamboyant
or modest, cannot fail to be interesting; they are the people who
have shaped our lives and formed our world.
About
A list of the one hundred most influential people in history features descriptions of the careers, contributions, and accomplishments of the political and religious leaders, inventors, writers, artists, and others who changed the course of history. Simultaneous.
In 1978, when Michael Hart’s controversial book The 100 was first published, critics objected that Hart had the nerve not only to select who he thought were the most influential people in history, but also to rank them according to their importance. Needless to say, the critics were wrong, and to date more than 60,000 copies of the book have been sold. Hart believed that in the intervening years the influence of some of his original selections had grown or lessened and that new names loomed large on the world stage. Thus, the publications of this revised and updated edition of The 100.
As before, Hart's yardstick is influence: not the greatest people, but the most influential, the people who swayed the destinies of millions of human beings, determined the rise and fall of civilizations, changed the course of history. With incisive biographies, Hart describes their careers and contributions. Explaining his ratings, he presents a new perspective on history, gathering together the vital facts about the world's greatest religious and political leaders, inventors, writers, philosophers, explorers, artists, and innovators—from Asoka to Zoroaster. Most of the biographies are accompanied by photographs or sketches. Hart's selections may be surprising to some. Neither Jesus nor Marx, but Muhammad, is designated as the most influential person in human history. The writer's arguments may challenge and perhaps convince readers, but whether or not they agree with him, his manner of ranking is both informative and entertaining. The 100, revised and updated, is truly a monumental work. It promises to be just as controversial, just as thought-provoking, and just as successful as its predecessor—a perfect addition to any history or philosophy reference section.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Mecca, the holy city of Islam; the black building at
center is the Kaaba, the sanctuary that houses
the black stone.
M uhmnmad and the Arab conquests (map).
Moslem crusaders under Muhammad conquer in
Allah's name.
Isaac Newton.
N e\vton analyzes a ray of light.
Jesus Christ.
ReIn brandt' s "Hundred Guilder Print" of Christ
preaching.
Buddha.
The belfry of a Japanese Buddhist temple.
"Buddha's Return from Heaven," by N anda Lal Bose.
Confucius.
The legendary meeting of Confucius with Lao Tzu.
St. Paul.
Detail of Michelangelo's fresco, "The Conversion of
Saint Paul," in the Vatican.
Christian pilgrims march in a Good Friday procession
on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem.
Ts'ai Lun.
Process of papernlaking.
Johann Gutenberg.
Gutenberg and friends examine the first printed page.
A page from an original Gutenberg Bible. 45
Christopher Columbus. 47
"Columbus before Isabella," by Vacslav Brozik. 48
The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria sail to the
New World. 50
"The Landing of Columbus," by John Vanderlyn. 51
Albert Einstein. 52
The atomic bomb explodes at Hiroshima, August 6,
1945. 56
Einstein discusses his theories. 59
Louis Pasteur. 60
Pasteur in his laboratory. 62
Galileo Galilei. 64
Illustration of Galilean law of leverage from Galileo's
physics textbook Mathematical Discourses and
Demonstrations. 65
Galileo's telescope. 66
The Leaning Tower of Pisa from which Galileo
supposedly demonstrated the laws of falling
bodies. 68
Aristotle. 70
Portrait of Aristotle by Raphael, detail from "The
School of Athens." 72
Aristotle and his pupil, Alexander. 74
Euclid. 75
Diagram from a Euclidian geometric theorem. 78
Statue of Moses, by Michelangelo. 79
"Moses with the Ten Commandments," by Guido
Reni. 81 List of Illustrations xiii
Charles Darwin. 82
Beagle Channel was named after Darwin's ship "The
Beagle." 86
Great Wall of China. 87
Augustus Caesar. 92
The Roman Empire at the death of Augustus (map). 94
Statue of Augustus Caesar at the Vatican. 98
Nicolaus Copernicus. 99
The Copernican system of the universe. 101
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier. 103
Lavoisier in his laboratory at the Royal Arsenal. 106
Constantine the Great. 107
"Constantine Fighting the Lion," from Constantine
tapestry designed by Pietro Da Cortona. 110
James Watt. III
Watt's double-acting steam engine, 1769. 113
Watt, as a boy, notices the condensation of steam. 114
Michael Faraday. 115
Faraday lectures at the Royal Institution on December
27, 1855. 118
James Clerk Maxwell. 119
Maxwell's equations are the basic laws of electricity
and magnetism. 121
Martin Luther. 123
Luther nails the Ninety-five Theses to the door of the
church at Wittenberg. 125
"Luther before the Diet of Worms," by E. Delperee. 127
George Washington. 129 xiv List of Illustrations
Karl Marx.
133
Chinese citizens at a cadre school in Beijing receive
instructions in Marxism. 136
Orville and Wilbur Wright. 138
The Wright brothers' original byplane. 140
The historic first flight of the Wright brothers' airplane
at Kitty Hawk. 142
Genghis Khan. 144
The Mongol conquests (map). 147
Adam Smith. 148
Smith is commemorated on the Scots penny. 151
Portrait of Edward de Vere (attributed to Marcus
Gheeraedts). 152
Hedingham Castle, the birthplace and childhood home
of Edward de Vere. 157
Letter written (in French) by Edward de Vere when
he was 13 years old. 161
John Dalton. 170
Dalton's table of atomic weights. 172
Alexander the Great. 174
The Empire of Alexander the Great (map). 177
Alexander on horseback, detail from "The Battle of
Alexander," mosaic at Pompei from the 2nd
century, B. C. 179
Napoleon Bonaparte. 181
Napoleon before the Sphinx CL'Oedipe") by J. L.
Gerome. 183
Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. 187
Thomas Edison. 188 List of Illustrations xv
Edison in his laboratory at Menlo Park. 191
Antony van Leeuwenhoek. 192
William T. G. Morton 195
Morton anesthetizes a patient. 198
With this glass container, Morton first administered
sulphuric ether to a patient in 1846. 200
Guglielmo Nlarconi. 201
Marconi at his telegraph machine. 202
Marconi in his floating laboratory, the yacht "Elettra." 203
Adolf Hitler. 205
Scene at Buchenwald. 209
Nazi soldiers, 1933. 211
Plato. 213
Oliver Cromwell. 217
Cromwell refuses the crown of England. 221
Alexander Graham Bell. 222
Bell opens the telephone line between New York and
Chicago in 1892. 224
Alexander Fleming. 225
John Locke. 228
Ludwig van Beethoven. 232
An original manuscript by Ludwig van Beethoven. 234
Werner Heisenberg. 236
Louis Daguerre. 240
The official Daguerre camera produced by Daguerre's
brother-in-law, Alphonse Giroux, carried a label
that says: "No apparatus guaranteed if it does not
bear the signature of M. Daguerre and the seal of
M. Giroux." 243 xvi
SiInon Bolivar.
Rene Descartes.
List of Illustrations
Title page from the first edition of Discourse on
244
248
Method, 1637. 253
Michelangelo. 254
The "David," in the Accademia in Florence. 255
The "Piehl," in the Vatican in Rome. 256
"God Dividing the Waters from the Earth," section of
the Sistine Chapel ceiling. 257
Pope Urban II incites Crusaders to recapture the Holy
Land. 258
Mosque in Cairo named after 'u mar ibn al-Khattab. 261
Arab expansion under 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (map). 262
Asoka issued edicts on stone pillars, such as this
Asokan pillar at Lauriya-N andangarh. 266
Augustine disputes with Manichaeans. 268
Augustine dictates to a scribe. 271
William Harvey. 273
Harvey explains his ideas to Charles 1. 275
Illustrations from William Harvey's book On the
Movement of the Heart and Blood in Animals. 276
Ernest Rutherford. 277
John Calvin. 281
Monument in Geneva commemorating the
Reformation. 284
Gregor Mendel. 286
The genetic patterns of the flower mirabilis jalapa. 289
Max Planck. 291
Joseph Lister. 294 List of Illustrations xvii
Nikolaus August Otto. 297
Otto's engine was employed by automobile pioneers
Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz. 301
The original "Benzine Buggy." 301
Francisco Pizarro. 303
Pizarro's audience with Charles V before em barking
for Peru. 306
Hernando Cortes. 309
Cortes and Montezuma meet. 313
Thomas Jefferson. 315
Jefferson's home in Charlottesville, Virginia-the
historic Monticello-was built from his own
designs. 319
Queen Isabella I. 322
Joseph Stalin. 328
Scene from one of the spectacular Russian treason
trials of the thirties, which established Stalin's
reputation as a tyrant. 331
Stalin meets with M.l. Kalinin, president of the
Soviet Union, 1923-1946. 335
Julius Caesar. 336
The Ides of March: the assassination of Julius Caesar. 339
William the Conqueror. 341
William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings. 345
The first known painting of the Battle of Hastings. 347
Sigmund Freud. 348
Edward Jenner. 351
Jenner administers the first vaccination. 353
Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen. 355 xviii List of Illustrations
X-rays have facilitated great advances in dentistry. 357
Johann Sebastian Bach. 359
A page from the score of the "Prelude and Fugue in
B-Minor," written by J. S. Bach. 362
Lao Tzu. 363
Taoist family sacrifices to the harvest moon. 365
Voltaire. 367
Voltaire's funeral. 372
Johannes Kepler. 373
Enrico Fermi. 377
Leonhard Euler. 381
J ean-Jacques Rousseau. 385
An etching of Rousseau by N audet. 388
N iccolo Machiavelli. 390
Bust of Niccolo Machiavelli by an unknown Florentine
sculptor. 393
Thomas Malthus. 395
John F. Kennedy. 399
On July 20, 1969, the Apollo II astronauts left this
footstep on the moon, fulfilling Kennedy's pledge
of May 1961 to land a manned spacecraft on the
moon «before this decade is out." 401
Gregory Pincus. 403
Persian mosaic depicting the Manichaean elect. 408
A miniature, probably of the 8th or 9th century,
depicting two rows of Manichaean priests in
ritual costume. 412
Lenin. 414
Woodcut of Lenin and Red Guards with the motto:
"We stand on guard for freedom." 418 List of Illustrations xix
Sui Wen Ti. 420
Vasco da Gama. 424
Vasco da Gama's ship rounds the Cape of Good Hope. 427
The voyages of Vasco da Gama and Columbus (1nap). 428
Cyrus the Great. 432
Cyrus the Great and the Persian Empire (map). 436
The tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae. 438
Peter the Great. 439
At the Battle of Poltava, the Russian forces under
Peter the Great decisively defeated the Swedish. 442
Mao Zedong. 445
Chinese citizens celebrate the 18th anniversary of
Mao's takeover of the mainland. 448
Chairman Mao participates in Chinese scholastic
celebrations. 449
Francis Bacon. 450
.. those that want friends to open themselves unto
are cannibals of their own hearts; ... " FRANCIS
BACON, in OF FRIENDSHIP. 455
Henry Ford. 456
Ford's famous "Model T." 458
Assembly line at Ford's Highland Park plant. 459
Mencius. 461
Zoroaster. 464
A Parsee fire-temple in Bombay. 466
Queen Elizabeth I. 468
The defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588) marked the
beginning of English naval supremacy under
Elizabeth I. 473
Preface to the Second Edition
persons who had been included in that group in the first edition.
Those three men are: Niels Bohr, Pablo Picasso, and Antoine Henri
Becquerel. This, of course, does not in any way imply that I con-
sider them to be unimportant figures. On the contrary, those
three-like most of those listed as honorable mentions, and like
many other men and women whom I have not had the space to
mention-were talented and influential persons who have helped
create this faScinating world we live in.
Michael H. Hart
January 1992
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