Literature that changed the course of history
Upvote:0
Ricky gave a nice selection but let me add a few items:
The Bible. Quran. Mein Kampf. Das Kapital (actually more influential than Communist Manifesto, though few people read it:-)
Actually there is a book called "100 most influential people in history". http://www.dlmark.net/hundred.htm
Most of these people influenced history through certain books. The list begins with:
Mohammed (Quran)
Newton (Principia Mathematica)
Then go J. Christ, Budda and Confucius (the first did not write any books, about the last two I am not sure), followed by
St. Paul (parts of the New testament)
and so on. I do not say that I agree with this book selection, especially with the ordering of the 100, but there is something in it. They changed the course of history, indeed. Certainly the books of Newton and Maxwell caused dramatic changes in history, but this is very difficult to compare with the impact of the Bible, Confucius, and the books of Voltaire.
Upvote:1
But of course.
When passions run high because life sucks, someone needs to sit down and try to define the grievances in order for those who are upset to make sense of what they're upset about.
Thomas Pain is the author of Common Sense, the book that inspired the American Revolution.
Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote a whole bunch of stuff that the French revolutionaries took to heart.
Karl Marx is guilty of publishing The Communist Manifesto that caused so much havoc in the industrial world.
And Abraham Lincoln all but accused the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin of the perils that befell the country in the 1860's by saying, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war!"
Which is to say ideas that cause people to fight need to be formulated first. Folks always need an excuse, a means of telling the bad guys from the good guys. Only Porthos the musketeer said "I am going to fight--because I am going to fight," but he was, of course, lying.
More post
- 📝 Why was the World Trade Center selected as a target by Al Qaeda?
- 📝 Did Britain send convicts to Canada during the colonial era?
- 📝 Paradigm change in power: from military to economic in Europe
- 📝 How is the accuracy of the Maya Calendar measured?
- 📝 Who are the ancestors of the Israelites?
- 📝 Why were bows referred to as "Indian Artillery"?
- 📝 Where/when does the wok start to differentiate itself from pot-style cooking vessels?
- 📝 Why did many US military designs start with letter M?
- 📝 Who is on the Nazi 2 Reichsmark coin?
- 📝 Was Murud-Janjira independent until it became part of India?
- 📝 What were the demographics of the ancient Greek colonies of Cyprus (any population estimates from 500BCE to 1BCE will do)?
- 📝 What was the social condition of a pregnant single woman in the late 1970s in England?
- 📝 Is it possible to estimate a "Gini Index" from the Roman Empire?
- 📝 How do we reconcile hierarchical and violent aspects of Ancient Egypt with its nonviolent principle of Maat, as exemplified in negative confessions?
- 📝 How important was the Suez Canal to the Allies during WWII?
- 📝 Did the British screw Lee Kuan Yew over by withdrawing their naval presence earlier than intended?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union's economy grow fast in the 1950's-1960's?
- 📝 How did people react to Cavendish bananas when they first replaced the Gros Michel strain?
- 📝 Easter Islands: were the Islanders starving when found?
- 📝 Two Successive Coups?
- 📝 Why did the Sassanid and the Eastern Roman Empire fail to make a lasting peace?
- 📝 What was the rationale behind restrictions on camera ownership in post-war Germany?
- 📝 Profit of slave labor in America
- 📝 Is there a confirmed historic record of using "non-standard" live animals for military purposes?
- 📝 Why did Spartacus turn South at Mutina instead of continuing North towards Thrace?
- 📝 How did the Carthaginians manage to survive three years of siege?
- 📝 Why did the Mongols outlaw intermarriage between the Mongols and the Chinese and forbid the Chinese from learning the Mongolian language?
- 📝 Why Did the Founding Fathers Create the Electoral College?
- 📝 Were the Japanese aware of Desmond Doss's actions?
- 📝 Was early Sumerian civilization wiped out by a flood?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Literature that changed the course of history
- 📝 Does the Catholic church have a long history of child abuse, or is it something that started in our time?
- 📝 The history of the idea that lack of moral censure leads to decline
- 📝 Was Brown v Board of Education the only major decision that changed educational choice in America?
- 📝 Was the Titanic sinking the only time in recorded maritime history that a band was playing while their ship was sinking?
- 📝 Are there any misunderstandings in history that were resolved in the 20th century?
- 📝 Where does George Buchanan say in “The History of Scotland” that Macbeth used (specifically) Belladonna to poison the Danes?
- 📝 Were there any natural disasters that decisively changed the result of a later election by killing the electorate of one side?
- 📝 Are there any images within the time period of contemporary history (1945 to the present) that had different interpretations by historians?
- 📝 When did people decide that all caps means the writer is shouting?
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?
- 📝 Why is the consensus that WW2 started on September 1, 1939 and not July 7, 1937?
- 📝 Is there any evidence to support the claim that the United States was "suckered into WW1" by Zionists, made by Benjamin Freedman in his 1961 speech?
- 📝 Is it true that slavery was endemic in Sub-Saharan Africa previous to the establishment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade?
- 📝 Is history always written by the victors?
- 📝 What are the factors that caused the new world civilizations to be less technologically advanced than the old world?
- 📝 Is the claim that Hitler came to power democratically justified?
- 📝 When did the Romans finally acknowledge that they were living in an empire?
- 📝 What is the significance behind "40 days" that often appears in the Bible?
- 📝 What led some people to (correctly) believe that there was no land under the ice cap at the North Pole?
- 📝 What is the origin of the stereotype that Polish people lack intelligence?
- 📝 Which year in history had the highest ratio of non-natural deaths?
- 📝 How would a king's servants prove that they are on a task given by the king?
- 📝 How did the American Civil War help the U.S economy recover from the Panic of 1857 given that civil wars are extremely destructive?
- 📝 Why did the Royal Society in 1771 believe that a continent further south than Australia should exist?
- 📝 Why is it that the maiden name is traditionally dropped when a woman is getting married?
- 📝 What disruptions were brought about by Islam that the Arabians saw so many victories?
- 📝 What was the first solar eclipse that was demonstrably predicted in advance?
- 📝 Is there any evidence that Cleopatra and Caesarion considered fleeing to India to escape the Romans?
- 📝 Is it true that there are more slaves in the world now than ever at one point in history?