This is the fourth installment of a series that will focus on Michael H. Hart's book The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History (Citadel Press). As I explained in my first installment, Hart has attempted to survey the whole of human history from early civilization through the late 20th century and identify the 100 individuals whose undertakings have most affected, for good or ill, the largest number of fellow humans. For each, the author provides a brief bio combined with an explanation of his or her historical influence.
In short form, Hart's top 100 list (1992 revised edition), starting with the most influential, is: Muhammad; Newton; Jesus; Buddha; Confucius; St. Paul; Ts’ai Lun; Gutenberg; Columbus; Einstein; Pasteur; Galileo; Aristotle; Euclid; Moses; Darwin; Shih Huang Ti; Augustus Caesar; Copernicus; Lavoisier; Constantine; Watt; Faraday; Maxwell; Luther; Washington; Marx; Wright Brothers; Genghis Khan; Adam Smith; de Vere a/k/a Shakespeare; Dalton; Alexander; Napoleon; Edison; Leeuwenhoek; Morton; Marconi; Hitler; Plato; Cromwell; Bell; Fleming; Locke; Beethoven; Heisenberg; Daguerre; Bolivar; Descartes; Michelangelo; Pope Urban II; 'Umar ibn al-Khattab; Asoka; St. Augustine; Harvey; Rutherford; Calvin; Mendel; Planck; Lister; Otto; Pizarro; Cortes; Jefferson; Isabella I; Stalin; Julius Caesar; William the Conqueror; Freud; Jenner; Röntgen; Bach; Lao Tzu; Voltaire; Kepler; Fermi; Euler; Rousseau; Machiavelli; Malthus; Kennedy; Pincus; Mani; Lenin; Sui Wen Ti; da Gama; Cyrus; Peter the Great; Mao; Bacon; Ford; Mencius; Zoroaster; Elizabeth I; Gorbachev; Menes; Charlemagne; Homer; Justinian I; Mahariva.
My plan is to go through the list from top to bottom and, with each installment, provide bullet point summaries of Hart's biographical sketches, supplemented with synopses of Hart's subjective commentary. I welcome you to suggest other names that should be on Hart's list. Keep in mind, though, that any such suggestion necessarily implies that someone on the list should be dropped. If you can, please tell us which name or names you'd like to toss.
In the first three installments we covered Muhammad through Moses. Here are the next five (I originally planned to cover 10 at a time, but that notion has proved too ambitious - I'm a slow writer) on Hart’s list of the most influential persons in history:
- Charles Darwin 1809-1882
• born in Shrewsbury, England, on the same day as Lincoln was born across the Atlantic
• studied medicine at University of Edinburgh, then switched to divinity studies at Cambridge before obtaining recommendation for position of naturalist on the exploratory voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, beginning 1831
• visited South America, the Galapagos Islands, and islands of the Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and the South Pacific, making observations and recording voluminous, detailed notes
• completed voyage in 1836; in the next 20 years, published a series of books establishing his reputation as a leading biologist
• by 1842 had developed an outline of the theory of evolution and soon started writing a book explaining his theory
• in 1858, learned that Alfred Russel Wallace, a British naturalist, had independently developed a similar theory; the two presented a joint paper to British scientific authorities
• in 1859, finally published The Origin of Species (more fully, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life), which immediately ignited great debate and controversy
• in 1871, published The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, which provocatively argued that humans are themselves the result of evolution
• by the time of Darwin’s death in 1882, the majority of scientists had accepted the validity of his arguments
Darwin was not the first to theorize that species might evolve over time, but was the first to persuasively explain the mechanism – natural selection – by which this process occurs. He also presented a large quantity of evidence to support his hypothesis, and his work revolutionized the sciences of biology and anthropology. Yet, Darwin knew nothing about genetics; Mendel’s work was unknown during Darwin’s time. Despite his contributions to human knowledge, Darwin and his theory continue to be reviled by some in the religious community who reject evolution’s validity.
- Shih Huang Ti 259 BC – 210 BC
• of royal birth, at age 21 became ruler of the state of Ch’in in western China
• chose able generals, and by 221 BC had subjugated the other Chinese feudal states
• declared himself the emperor of all China; ruled according to principles of the Legalist philosophy
• abolished China’s feudal system of government and instituted major reforms that unified the nation militarily and politically
• instituted uniform national systems of laws, currency, weights and measures, and commercial standards
• in a bid to suppress Confucianism and other rival philosophies, ordered the destruction of most existing books
• completed the construction of the Great Wall
Shih Huang Ti’s rule was tyrannical in many respects, but his influence on the evolution of the nation of China was enormous. He might be compared to Augustus Caesar, the founder of the Roman Empire; however, his political influence lasted for a far longer period, i.e., over 2,000 years.
- Augustus Caesar 63 BC – 14 AD
• Born in Rome as Gaius Octavius; grandnephew of Julius Caesar, who later adopted him
• after Julius Caesar’s death, contended with Marc Antony for political power
• defeated Antony’s forces in 31 BC at battle of Actium
• assumed imperial dictatorship of Rome and held power for more than 40 years while nominally maintaining republican form of government
• his armies extended Roman rule into Spain, Switzerland, Galatia, and much of the Balkans
• reformed Roman government and ordered construction of extensive public works
• as emperor, his rule commenced a 200 year period of internal peace, the
Pax Romana
Augustus is less famous than Julius Caesar, but his influence upon subsequent history has been far greater. The Roman Empire he brought to fruition is the most celebrated empire of ancient times.
- Nicolas Copernicus 1473-1543 (a fellow Pole!)
• born in Poland and studied astronomy, then traveled to Italy where he completed further studies in law, medicine, and church law and was exposed to ancient Greek concept of heliocentric universe
• as an adult, pursued astronomy as a pastime
• spent many years carefully observing the motions of the planets and composing his book which set forth in detail his theory and the evidence that supported it
• at age 60, delivered a series of lectures presenting the principal points of his theory
• received first copy of his book (De revolutionibus orbium coelstium, or On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres) from the printer on the day he died
Copernicus was not the first to propose a sun-centered planetary system, but was first to present a detailed, scientifically useful, hypothesis. In so doing, he revolutionized humanity’s conception of the universe and inspired the later work of Galileo, Kepler, and Newton. In some respects his explanations were incorrect; nevertheless, the publication of his iconic book may be considered the starting point of modern science.
- Antoine Laurent Lavoisier 1743-1794
• born in Paris, France
• was the first person to clearly state the principle of conservation of mass in chemical reactions
• established the fundamental principles of chemistry, superseding earlier, erroneous explanations for combustion and the nature of substances such as air and water
• formulated first modern list of the chemical elements
• helped devise first well-organized system of chemical nomenclature
• working with Laplace, demonstrated that biological respiration is basically equivalent to a slow process of combustion
• executed by the French revolutionary government (you can guess the method!)
Lavoisier is considered "the father of modern chemistry."