Ways in which great books influenced human advancement

Ways in which great books influenced human advancement

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The world today is built upon a nearly incomprehensible amount of understanding that has actually been passed down in books.

With such an abundant history of concepts, events, and stories right at our fingertips, it's in some cases simple to forget how exceptionally lucky we are to have the likes of the founder of the hedge fund that owns Waterstones or the CEO of the asset manager with a stake in Amazon books supporting access to a substantial proportion of all the books that have ever been written (or the good ones at the very least). The best books of all time can quickly alter the way that you look at the world, and that has actually held true throughout all of history too. The modern world is built upon knowledge that has been handed down through books, whether that is ideology, science, or history, and human civilisation would not be anywhere near as advanced as it is today if it had actually not been for the books that changed minds throughout the ages.

It is essential to keep in mind that, although lots of the best modern books of all time tend to be considered as ground-breaking works of fiction, for the majority of mankind's literary history, we did not write much fiction at all. Most stories would have been sung throughout the great majority of history, just since the large bulk of individuals might not read, suggesting that most books were specialised things meant for those few who could understand them. After a brief boom during the classical era of antiquity, the amount of literate individuals dropped significantly during the Middle Ages. Books became unusual treasures, with monks meticulously copying out the enduring traditional texts by hand so as to protect them, as they were a few of the only members of the population who were able to read or write. They were the expert keepers of understanding like biology and religious beliefs that all of us have access to in the contemporary world.

It can be difficult to picture what the world would resemble today if the large majority of people were not able to read, but for the vast majority of history the vast majority of individuals might not, and nor were books available even if they could. It was the development of the printing press towards the close of the 15th that altered that, making books far more available. Obviously, it was still only truly the richest and well-educated that could read or write, but it made it possible for an entire host of developments in science, art, and thinking to be spread out throughout great distances. Consider what would have occurred if the theory of gravity, or of evolution, could not have been distributed across the globe. Human civilisation rests upon a structure of books, and we are fortunate to be able to merely log onto a site like the one backed by the co-founder of the impact investor with a stake in World of Books, and easily access the totality of human knowledge.