Top 10 Most Influential Books of All-Time
The Qur'an, Islam's holy book, has also been a huge influence. As Christians and Muslims have, in the past (and to a lesser extent, in the present.), had some serious problems getting along (and that's putting it nicely.), the Qur'an has influenced treatment of captives. Also, the Qur'an is used by terrorists to blame their atrocious acts of fascism on. For this reason, many Americans have been very much misinformed as to the nature of the Qur'an.
Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy revolutionized the way we thought of hell. It also introduced the concept of 7 deadly sins, the 9 rings of Hell, more modern personification of Satan and the denizens of Hades. It contains graphic (if not beautiful) descriptions of Hell that shocked many into converting to Christianity.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin may have been a driving force in starting the American Civil War. When the book was published, many thousands of people thought it was a true story. For this reason, many people (even to this day) have the idea that the entire south during that time period had slaves, used slaves, and abused slaves. Uncle Tom's Cabin may have sparked some of the violence and several revolutionaries that carried out attacks on pre-Confederacy forts and armories.
The Origin of Species by Darwin has been influential for obvious reasons. It has shaped our views on evolution and natural selection. Before Darwin wrote it, we really had but a faint clue of how we got here. It's sparked controversy and more.
Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil was used as a platform for Nazi Germany. Nietzsche's writings were contorted by his sister, who, actually, was the antisemitic one (Nietzsche has a bad reputation for being antisemitic, but this is not true.), and were used by the Nazis at rallies.
The English Bill of Rights was a large influence on the American Bill of Rights. That, in and of itself, makes it one of the most influential texts of all time.
The US Constitution has influenced many other nations' wills to be free states. Soon after the US became independant of England, Mexico began fighting to become free from Spain. Similar things happened elsewhere in the world, especially South America and Africa.
The I Ching is an ancient Chinese divination text that attempts to understand cosmic patterns in everyday things and events. The I Ching influenced many other methods of divination, altered some ideas of karma and effect, and was overall a huge influence in Chinese history. China, being as influential as it is today, and having been influenced by the I Ching, makes the I Ching influential to the rest of the world as well.
Homeric writings were also very influential. The Odyssey and the Iliad influenced generations upon generations of storytellers by setting the bar considerably higher than it was before. Whereas stories before these were often "flatter" and the characters "two-dimensional" these two writings inspired many others to start writing more realistic characters and adopt stronger plotlines and discouraged the use of deus ex machina.
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9 Comments
Post a CommentThat has got to be the stupidest comment I've ever seen written about the Bible. Who knew that one of the Bible's main influences was to inspire new devices of torture.
Untold millions have been instructed on their spirituality by the Bible.
It's the greatest book ever written by a wide margin.
To try to confine its effects to the Middle Ages is just absurd.
Where's Atlas Shrugged??
Beyond Good and Evil is indeed highly influential, but I'd hardly say it was for becoming the "platform" of Nazi Germany. If you must find something by Nietzsche which influenced the Nazis, look to "Will to Power," which was essentially a butchered work of his notes by his opportunistic and foolish sister and barely represents Nietzsche's thought. Nietzsche, in fact, often acted as an anti-Semite in order to speak in an ironic and hypocritical way, thus mocking anti-Semites, though this is frequently taken as him actually being an anti-Semite by the uneducated. He also generally loathed the German people. This article was very unclear on Nietzsche's views, and made it sound like the magnificent work "Beyond Good and Evil" was a Nazi doctrine.
Although i agree with many of the books on this list, I have to argue that the Communist Manifesto should be added to this list, or replace number 6, Beyond Good and Evil. Sure, it influenced the Nazi powers, but arguably, Hitler's Mein Kamph, would be more influential. But even more influential then that, is the paper that started the whole communist madness, The Communist Manifesto. It is the first time that Communist ideas were written down, and were then used as a base, by all other communist societies.
Also, I have to agree with Jonathan Reece.
Irv, what kind of crack are you smoking?
Definitely Quran is the most reading book ever. Millions of people not only read this holy book also memorise by heart from beggining to last.whatever american thing doesnot matter for Islam. A muslim only depends on Allah and does his/her duty.
'the Bible was a source of inspiration for heinous acts of violence'
Yes when Jesus said 'love thy enemy' and 'love thy neighbor as you love thyself', he actually inspired people to kill millions and invent inventions of torture. You're the biggest joke I've met in my life. If the Bible is influential, it is because it inspired the greatest minds of all time (Newton, Planck, Galilei, Copernicus, Descartes, even Einstein(though he was a nontheist) at times. The Bible's search for simplicity, knowledge, wisdom, and intelligence helped form modern science philosophy and society. Scholasticism arose from a combination of theologians that followed Christian Theology and Greek philosophy of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
In regards to the describtion given about the influence of the Bible, I want to ask, how is it that the commentator concluded that the Bible helped to invent devices of torture?
This theory is ridiculous! To think that the Bible influenced such a thing is absurd.
It is not the Bible that initiates such wicked ideas, but the mind and heart of mankind. People may have misconstrued what the Word of God testified, and used that interpretation to feed hatred, but never was the Bible a source of such hateful ideas as the Roman Inquisition, or the ironic, "Holy Crusades". These things were as contradictory to the teachings of the Bible, as are the teachings of ghandi to the movement of Nazism.
People will try to rebut this assertion, but the truth is that if they studied the Bible, as I do, then they will come to the same conclusion as I have given here.
Thank you, and to all the people that read this: Do not listen to foolishness as presented in the description above ( this si
i think he only means america. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world and more and more people are reading and having their lives inflenced by the Qur'an
Ethanael - Some of the texts you cited are not books, and therefore, cannot be influencial "books." But hey, I'm not here to split hairs. Anyway, was disappointed to not see Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged here. You know, it is the 2nd most influential book in America, second only to the Bible.