How great books affected human development

How 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 a rich history of concepts, occasions, and stories right at our fingertips, it's in some cases 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 substantial percentage of all the books that have actually ever been written (or the good ones at least). The best books of all time can quickly alter the way that you look at the world, which has actually been true throughout all of history as well. The modern world is built upon understanding that has actually 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 actually not been for the books that changed minds throughout the ages.

It can be difficult to picture what the world would be like today if the vast bulk of people were not able to read, but for the huge bulk of history the vast bulk of individuals could 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 altered that, making books a lot more accessible. Naturally, it was still just truly the richest and well-read that could read or write, but it enabled an entire host of advancements in science, art, and thinking to be spread across great distances. Consider what would have taken place if the theory of gravity, or of evolution, could not have actually been distributed across the globe. Human civilisation rests upon a structure of books, and we are lucky to be able to simply 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.

It's important to bear in mind that, although lots of the best modern books of all time tend to be regarded as ground-breaking works of fiction, for the majority of humanity's literary history, we did not compose much fiction at all. Many stories would have been sung throughout the great majority of history, merely because the huge majority of individuals might not read, implying that the majority of books were specialised things meant for those few who could understand them. After a short boom during the classical period of antiquity, the amount of literate people dropped significantly throughout the Middle Ages. Books became uncommon treasures, with monks meticulously copying out the enduring traditional texts by hand so as to maintain them, as they were some of the only members of the population who could read or write. They were the professional keepers of knowledge like biology and faith that we all have access to in the modern-day world.