Ways great books affected human development

Ways great books affected human development

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The world today is built on an almost incomprehensible amount of understanding that has been passed down in books.

With such an abundant history of concepts, occasions, and stories right at our fingertips, it's often easy to forget how incredibly 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 huge proportion of all the books that have ever been composed (or the good ones at least). The best books of all time can quickly alter the manner in which you take a look at the world, which has actually held true throughout all of history too. The modern-day world is built on understanding that has been passed down through books, whether that is philosophy, science, or history, and human civilisation would not be anywhere near as advanced as it is today if it had not been for the books that changed minds across the ages.

It is essential to remember that, although plenty of the best modern books of all time tend to be regarded as ground-breaking works of fiction, for most of mankind's literary history, we did not compose much fiction at all. A lot of stories would have been sung throughout the great bulk of history, just because the vast bulk of individuals could not read, implying that many books were specialised things meant for those few who could comprehend them. After a short boom during the classical era of antiquity, the quantity of literate people dropped drastically during the Middle Ages. Books ended up being unusual treasures, with monks meticulously copying out the surviving timeless texts by hand so as to maintain them, as they were some of the only members of the population who were able to read or write. They were the expert keepers of knowledge like biology and faith that we all have access to in the modern world.

It can be difficult to picture what the world would resemble today if the large majority of individuals were not able to read, but for the huge majority of history the vast bulk of people might not, and nor were books accessible even if they could. It was the development of the printing press towards the close of the 15th that changed that, making books much more available. Of course, it was still just really the wealthiest and well-educated that could read or write, however it enabled an entire host of breakthroughs in science, art, and thinking to be spread out across great distances. Consider what would have taken place if the theory of gravity, or of evolution, could not have been dispersed across the globe. Human civilisation rests upon a structure of books, and we are fortunate to be able to just 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 gain access to the totality of human knowledge.