This is the second 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 last week, 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.
Last week we got started with a review of Muhammad, Newton, and Jesus. Here are the next seven on Hart’s list of the most influential persons on history:
- Buddha 563 BC – 483 BC
• born in northeast India as Prince Siddhartha
• at age 29, left his family and sought to attain wisdom by following an ascetic life, but later abandoned this pursuit
• at age 35 experienced a spiritual revelation and considered himself a "Buddha," or enlightened one
• for the rest of his life, traveled in northern India preaching a new religion based on Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path
• Buddhism spread through much of eastern Asia, including China and Japan, but later died out in India
Buddha founded one of the world’s major religions, but has fewer modern followers than Jesus or Muhammad; however, in India, Hinduism absorbed many of his ideas and principles. Buddhism has a stronger pacifist element than either Christianity or Islam, and this factor has played some role in the political history of Buddhist countries. Buddha’s historical influence has been roughly equal to that of Confucius, but the latter’s influence has been largely confined to China and has waned since China’s communist revolution.
- Confucius 551 B.C. – 479 B.C
• born in poverty in northeastern China
• served for several years as a minor government official, then resigned and taught his philosophy for 16 years, attracting numerous disciples
• at age 50, awarded high government position; but was hounded into exile by enemies
• spent remainder of his life as an itinerant teacher of his philosophy, which is based on personal and political morality and conduct rather than spiritual themes
• following his death, his teachings spread widely throughout China and were established by the Han dynasty as official state philosophy
For many centuries, admission to Chinese civil service depended, in part, upon one’s mastery of the Confucian classics. Confucian ideals, which emphasize personal obligations more than individual rights, deeply influenced the Chinese and their daily lives for over 2,000 years.
- St. Paul c. 4 AD – c. 64 AD
• born Jewish in present day Turkey; also a Roman citizen
• originally aided in persecution of early Christians
• a mystical experience resulted in his conversion to Christianity
• spent the remainder of his life traveling extensively, preaching Christianity and founding numerous churches
• executed by civil authorities
Paul was an immensely successful missionary, and wrote much of the New Testament. He developed much of Christian theology founded on concept of Christ’s divinity, suffering, and redemption of humanity. His views on sexuality and gender roles have permeated Christianity. Paul transformed Christianity from a small Jewish sect into a multinational religion.
- Ts’ai Lun c. 105 A.D.
• invented paper
• little is known of his life
• according to official history of the Han dynasty, which appears credible, gave samples of paper to Emperor Ho Ti, who rewarded him with wealth and rank
• use of paper gradually spread through China (replacing bamboo); then to Arab world, and then to Europe (replacing parchment)
• the availability of a cheap, practical writing medium probably swayed the relative progress of the world’s competing civilizations
• despite his contribution, is hardy known in the West (note: I misspelled his name last week – oops!)
The manufacture of paper is a complex, multi-step process that was not intuitively obvious. Hart ranks Ts’ai Lun slightly above Gutenberg, as paper has many applications in addition to its use as a writing material, and Gutenberg may not have invented modern printing had paper not existed.
- Johann Gutenberg c. 1400 - 1468
• devised method of combining durable, movable type with suitable ink and a printing press to create an efficient method of mass-produced printing
• printed so-called "Gutenberg Bible" around 1454 in Mainz, Germany
• not a successful businessman and earned little from his invention of modern printing
After Gutenberg, Europe’s technology and world influence progressed rapidly. Hart notes that only three persons on his list lived during the five centuries preceding Gutenberg, while 67 have lived in succeeding centuries; this supports a conclusion that his invention was a key development in human progress.
- Christopher Columbus 1451 – 1506
• born in Genoa, Italy, becoming a skilled ship’s captain and navigator
• became convinced one could travel to East Asia by sailing westward across the Atlantic
• convinced Isabella I of Spain to finance his expedition
• reached the West Indies in 1492, mistakenly believing he had accomplished his goal
• was a cruel and unsuccessful administrator of the lands seized under his command
• efforts ultimately led to destruction of indigenous American civilizations by European powers and cultural influences
Columbus was not the first European to reach America, but news of his discoveries deeply impacted political developments in Europe. If Columbus had not made his voyages, some other European(s) surely would have made the trip eventually; but history may have been quite different had the French or English been first to accomplish this feat.
- Albert Einstein 1879 – 1955
• born in Ulm, Germany, and became a Swiss citizen in 1900
• received Ph.D. in 1905 from University of Zurich
• in 1905, published papers on special relativity, the photoelectric effect (for which he won the Nobel Prize in physics), and Brownian motion; these soon established his reputation as a leading physicist
• in 1933, fled Hitler and moved to Princeton, NJ
• formulated general theory of relativity
• famously associated with the special relativity equation "E=mc²" where E is energy, m is mass, and c is the speed of light in a vacuum, which is 299,792,458 meters per second
• opposed political tyranny and advocated for pacifism
• signed letter to Roosevelt calling attention to possibility of developing a nuclear weapon, which ultimately was built and used againast Japan
Einstein’s theories transformed human understanding of the relationships between time, space, mass, light, gravity, and energy, and showed that Newton’s laws, though elegant and seemingly consistent with everyday observations, were inadequate to fully explain nature. Amazingly, he developed his theories primarily by thinking – conducting "thought experiments" and considering the implications of various scenarios. While most educated people could understand Newton’s laws, Einstein’s theories appear paradoxical and are difficult to understand even when carefully explained. However, most modern technology depends on application of Newton’s laws, and would probably be much the same if Einstein had not come along.
Next time, let's check out numbers 11 through 20: Pasteur; Galileo; Aristotle; Euclid; Moses; Darwin; Shih Huang Ti; Augustus Caesar; Copernicus; and Lavoisier.