Genealogy Books - The 100: A ranking of the most influential persons in history

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Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:

Summary: Helmut's overview
Comment: This book is a must read. I recommend it to anybody that cares about the world we live in.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Outdated Book, Not worth a read
Comment: The 100 would have been a great book 20 years back. The book is out dated now. As the author himself
confesses that the influence of people changes as time goes on, so does the list. The list has not
changed for the past 20 years in this 1992 edition book. The book was of good quality in terms of
paper quality and print but content has become OUTDATED.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Couldn't judge...
Comment: The title sounded interesting. However, there was no clear criterion on how the author conducted the
rating and evaluation process. Moreover, in many parts the presented achievements do not fully
justify the author's selection. Definitely, I would like to learn more about the person to make my
judgment, or at least agree or disagree with the author -- just a brief description was provided.
Other than that the author did a great job trying to get this work accomplished. The most
interesting part is the historical timeline provided. I really liked it. Good job!

Customer Rating:

Summary: The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History
Comment: This fascinating book ranks the author's most "influential" people in history. Not a list of the
"greatest" persons in history. The book is involved with the question of who were the 100 persons
who had the greatest affect on history and on the course of the world. I didn't always agree with
the author's choices or rankings of importance (for example I would have included Abraham on the 100
list; he is only listed as honorable mention), but reading the excerpts was a new way of learning
world history. Easy to read... very well researched and written in concise terms. I also should note
that this book was not available to purchase at either Borders or Barnes and Noble, but Amazon had
it & got it to me fast.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Who were the most influential persons in history? This book presents an interesting viewpoint.
Comment: This book is a very interesting collection of biographies of highly influential people throughout
history. Since influence is not a well defined entity and is difficult to measure, the actual rank
or inclusion of a person on the list should not be taken seriously. The author clearly states that
the book is "his ranking", and not objective science. However, I find his list and the motivations
for his ranking quite enlightening and often convincing.

This list contained a few
people I had never heard of, but clearly were a lot more influential then many of the people I
thought were the most influential. Take, for example, "Ts'ai Lun" the inventor of paper (China 105
AD), who is ranked number 7. Largely because of the existence of paper China was able to develop
into a powerful and united empire, and when paper reached Europe it had a profound influence on
Western Civilization as well. Would there even be a modern Western Civilization without Ts'ai
Lun?

Because of paper we don't need to use clay tablets, sheep skin, papyrus, or bamboo
to write. Printing presses and the mass production of books and newspapers has been made possible
because of paper. We also have paper money, toilet paper, and paper products thanks to Ts'ai Lun.
Clearly fame and influence are two very different things. Keep this in mind before disagreeing with
Hart too quickly.

Also note that the book ranks the most influential people in history,
not the greatest, not the noblest, not the most outstanding people, and not the most important
people in history. The grand father who spends several hours each day to help raise your child,
educate him, and spends his money on him, clearly has a large influence on you and your family, but
so does the drunk driver who kills your child. It is quite easy to have a negative influence on
people, but negative influences are considered in this book. So this is why people like Hitler,
Stalin, Mao, and Genghis Khan, are on the list.

36 of the 100 persons in the list are
scientists and inventors. Some think this is too many, I think this is rather too few. Because of
technology and science the world has been transformed from a planet with abundant misery and death
to a planet with just some misery and death. It used to be that more than half of all kids died, the
average life span was 30, and almost everyone was dirt poor and ignorant. Today the average lifespan
in the third world is 67, infant mortality is way down, starvation relatively less wide spread, and
analphabetism is no longer the norm. Just in case someone has missed it, the reason for the
population explosion is that people stopped dying like flies.

Many have complained that
the rank of Shakespeare is too low. Edward de Vere (William Shakespeare) is number 31 and Edward
Jenner is number 70. Edward Jenner invented the smallpox vaccine. Smallpox killed more than 300
million people in the 20th century (which is roughly 7-8% of all deaths in the 20th century). Since
1979 no one has died from small pox because vaccination has eradicated it. Shakespeare was a play
write that was influential on the English language. I had never read or heard much about Shakespeare
until I moved to the U.S. (I am not a native English speaker). It seems to me that the two Edwards
should switch rank. In any case Shakespeare's position on the list is not that bad. Whomever you
would like to see on this list, everyone has their viewpoint. My list will not look like yours, or
Harts, but Harts list is quite enlightening.

What makes this a good book is the fact
that it makes you think about who the influential people really were and why. It is also a good book
to teach children about history and the people who influenced it. It is also a fun biography
collection.

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