Ways in which great books influenced human advancement

Ways in which great books influenced human advancement

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Never ever before have books been so accessible as they are today in the contemporary world; keep reading to find out more.

It can be hard to picture what the world would resemble today if the vast majority of individuals were unable to read, but for the vast bulk of history the huge majority of people might not, and nor were books available even if they could. It was the invention of the printing press towards the close of the 15th that changed that, making books a lot more available. Of course, it was still only truly the wealthiest and well-read that could read or write, but it enabled an entire host of developments in science, art, and thinking to be spread out across great distances. Consider what would have happened if the theory of gravity, or of evolution, could not have been dispersed around the world. 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 quickly access the totality of human knowledge.

It is very important to bear in mind that, although a lot of the best modern books of all time tend to be regarded as ground-breaking works of fiction, for most of humankind'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, merely because the vast majority of people might not read, indicating that the majority of books were specialised things meant for those few who might comprehend them. After a brief boom during the classical era of antiquity, the amount of literate individuals dropped drastically throughout the Middle Ages. Books ended up being uncommon treasures, with monks fastidiously copying out the enduring timeless texts by hand so as to preserve them, as they were some of the only members of the populace who could read or write. They were the specialist keepers of knowledge like biology and religion that we all have access to in the modern world.

With such a rich history of ideas, events, and stories right at our fingertips, it's sometimes easy to forget how incredibly fortunate 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 written (or the good ones at the very least). The best books of all time can quickly alter the manner in which you take a look at the world, which has been true throughout all of history also. The contemporary world is built upon knowledge that has been passed 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.