"The 100"

A ranking of the most influential persons in history

The One Hundred Hart's controversial book The 100 was first published in 1978. Critics objected that he not only had the nerve to select what he thought were the most influential people in history, but he even ranked them according to their importance. Hart's arguments may challenge and perhaps convince readers, but his manner is certainly both informative and entertaining. Photos and drawings throughout. (description from Goodreads site, where I first found it)

“My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular level.” ~ in words of Michael H. Hart

I'm sure anyone who wrote something like this would come up with differences in the list, but for me it was not only interesting and informative but also kind of perfect! We have two people from India Buddha and Asoka, although I was hoping hard for Gandhi but more or less it was good. He did mention Gandhi in the end by the way but he ranked him 104-105 I guess. He's not the best writer for everyone but his words and the complete book does make you think about your own education--there were few people who I was not familiar with or didn't remember their names or their contributions. I obviously know next to nothing about math and physics even though these two things are so important to our world as we know it.

I thought the book will concentrate more on the lives of the influential people on it. But it rather concentrated on why they were influential and I guess it's the aim of this book anyway. It is a treasure of knowledge about the many historic figures of human history, regardless of their placement.

My favourite thing about this book is that the author lets you know the reasons and tests for his placements of those legends. People may not agree with the author's rankings, but it's really interesting to read his reasoning for them. My favourite legend was of course Muhammad (SAW), he earned the right place as being a secular and religious at the same time! 

After reading you'll just have one thought in mind "How amazing those people were"!!! I would like to suggest reading this wonderful book for anyone interested in history. 

Thank you for reading

Mugdha