Books that Changed the World by Andrew Taylor: book review

Books that Changed theWorld: The 50 Most Influential Books in Human History (2008, this version 2014) is a subjective list – not of authors or popular books, but of influential manuscripts. Taylor presents the list in chronological order, with 5-10 pages for each entry detailing its content and the reason for its listing. The timeline commences with Homer’s The Iliad, circa 8^th century BCE, and finishes with J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997).

Any list would be debatable, and there are entries which seem questionable, but it is interesting to consider his inclusions. The most entries are for literature, language or poetry (48%) with scientific texts second (20%) – starting with geography, and then medicine, astronomy, genetics, astrophysics, psychology, and environmental science. Political manuscripts are the third most cited entries (10%), followed by philosophy (8%), religion (4%), reference material (4%), and history (2%) – although history appears quite often within the literature selections.

It is also interesting to note that many of the manuscripts were originally controversial, but later regarded as ‘breakthrough’ thinking, such as medicine, geography, evolution, and astronomy.

Literature too often broke controversial ground at the time of publication – particularly in the West and during the Victorian era, such as Mallanaga Vatsyayan’s Kama Sutra (2^nd/3^rd century), Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary (1857), and D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928). Other literature was included for its perspective on reality from people who experienced it, such as Primo Levi’s If This is a Man (1947) on concentration and extermination camps, and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958) on an African view of colonialism – ‘a masterpiece of African literature in English.’ Primarily their inclusions were due to disseminating a message globally that influenced subsequent action.

Other inclusions were added, not because they were the ‘first’ or ‘new’ but that they were the first to compile other people’s thoughts and managed to publish them widely. These included the 5^th century BCE The Analects by Confucius, in which he states that he was not the ‘creator’ but ‘documenting traditional Chinese thought’. However, later the West attributed the thinking to Confucius. The Bible (2^nd century BCE to 2^nd century AD) is another example of various authors compiled into one book – to provide ‘the Word of God.’ However, Taylor does also add the 7^th century text The Qur’an – not a compilation, but ‘the literal Word’ of the Islamic faith that is ‘unique, unchallengeable, and ultimately untranslatable.’

Although Leo Tolstoy did not consider his book, War and Peace (1869) a novel – ‘it is not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less a historical chonicle’ – because he considered it to be ‘a philosophical discussion’ Taylor includes it because it ‘mixes fiction, history, and philosophy that ranks it among the world’s greatest novels.’ In any case, it is worthy of inclusion.

I question Taylor’s placement of The Thousand and One Nights translated in 1885 by Richard Burton. Known as The Arabian Nights it was written in the 9^th or 10^th century, and I think it should have been listed earlier and not attributed to Burton. Taylor’s rationale is that the translation brought the tales of the Middle East to the West in a manner that has enabled them to endure many interpretations and presentations.

Entries such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 1774 The Sorrows of Young Werther, the Lyrical Ballads (1798) by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997) by J.K. Rowlings I would not have included in the list of the most influential 50.

I would have listed Dale Carnegie’s 1936 book How to Win Friends and Influence People because it was the first self-help manuscript and an international bestseller that influenced personal and business relationships at that time, and for a long time into the future. I would have also included the trilogy by Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz, one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature and the winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. Known as the Cairo Trilogy (1956-57) it included Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, and Sugar Street, which explored the philosophy and psychology of time in comparison with physical time. And perhaps I would include a Wilfred Patrick Thesiger book that documents his travels and explorations, such as The Marsh Arabs (1964) – that set the standard for travel writing.

However, I agree with the inclusion of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (1380-90s), Don Quixote (1605-15) by Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare’s First Folio (1623), Arthur Conan Doyle’s (1888) A Study in Scarlet (introducing Sherlock Holmes), and Ulysses (1922) by James Joyce.

Confining a list to 50 books is open to contention, but as a start it provides a thought-provoking list to ponder.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).