The 100
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In 1978, Michael H. Hart published a book called The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History. His book was a ranking of the 100 people who, in his opinion, most influenced human history. His book was hotly debated, and his book concept widely copied. It is important to note that Dr. Hart is not ranking the greatest people. His only criterion is influence.
The book was reprinted in 1992 with several noticeable revisions made to the original list of 100 people and their associated rankings. Chief among these revisions was the demotion of figures associated with Communism like Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, and the introduction of Mikhail Gorbachev. Hart took sides in the Shakespearean authorship issue and substituted Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford for William Shakespeare. Hart also substituted Niels Bohr and Henri Becquerel with Ernest Rutherford, thus correcting an error in the first edition. Henry Ford was also promoted from the "Honorary Mentions" list, replacing Pablo Picasso. Finally, some of the rankings were re-ordered.
Hart's Top 15
| Rank | Name | Influence |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Muhammad | prophet of Islam |
| 2 | Isaac Newton | physicist, theory of universal gravitation, laws of motion, major developments in mathematics, optics |
| 3 | Jesus of Nazareth | founder of Christianity |
| 4 | Gautama Buddha | founder of Buddhism |
| 5 | Confucius | founder of Confucianism |
| 6 | St. Paul | proselytizer of Christianity |
| 7 | Cai Lun | inventor of paper |
| 8 | Johann Gutenberg | developed movable type and made great advances in printing |
| 9 | Christopher Columbus | explorer, led Europe to Americas |
| 10 | Albert Einstein | physicist, relativity, Einsteinian physics |
| 11 | Louis Pasteur | scientist, pasteurization, Germ Theory |
| 12 | Galileo Galilei | astronomer, accurately described heliocentric solar system, led way to Newton's work |
| 13 | Aristotle | influential Greek philosopher |
| 14 | Euclid of Alexandria | mathematician, Euclidean geometry, author of a very influential study book |
| 15 | Moses | major prophet of Judaism |
Note: The full list of The 100 is a creative work subject to copyright protection, and hence cannot be reproduced here.
Subjectivity
Any list of this nature will necessarily be subjective - even if there were a consensus regarding the identity of the 100 most influential people in history (and there is no such consensus), the order in which they are placed will always be a matter of debate. Hart's book gives his reasons for his order, but he makes it clear that these are his opinions.
It should also be noted that assessments of historical significance depend on a perspective which only time can provide. To rate the historical importance of contemporary figures is almost impossible, while in other cases ranking will depend on an individual's assessment of the relative importance of the fields of scientific, cultural and religious endeavour.
To take a simple and apparently uncontentious example: few would dispute that Johann Sebastian Bach, inventor of equal temperament, is one of the most influential figures in musical history, but without Guido d'Arezzo's invention of musical notation there could be no Bach. Which of the two is more influential? Perhaps it is simply that Bach is better-known - yet had the list been written in the years between Bach's death and Felix Mendelssohn's legendary 1829 performance of the St. Matthew Passion, Bach might have been considered an obscure composer of unfashionably archaic music, a footnote in the history of music.
Another striking example is the Italian campaign of Hannibal and his eventual defeat by Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus. Had Hannibal succeeded, the Roman Empire would probably never have existed, and the entire development of Western European civilization (and eventually civilization on a global scale) would have taken a radically different course; Christianity and Islam might simply not exist today. The historical contribution of both commanders is minor in comparison to, e.g. Augustus Caesar, but the influence of their actions on history is possibly one of the most crucial of all time.
Hart makes this point in the book where he points out that prior to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Vladimir Lenin would certainly have been ranked in the list.
Further reading
- The 100, Michael H. Hart, Carol Publishing Group, July 1992, paperback, 576 pages, ISBN 0806513500es:Los 100
