Five People From: The 100

The hundred is a ranking of the 100 most influential people throughout history. Each person has a short, 5-10 page article with large black and white pictures every few pages. Michael H. Hart describes the artist’s, or leader’s, or inventor’s background and accomplishments with enthusiasm and the reasons he ranked them where they are. Many times these people die and are forgotten for 100 years before being recognized for their achievements. On the other hand, many other people were extremely famous during their lifetime, but their influence gradually faded. In Hart’s introduction he talks about his method of ranking and how some fields of work are more influential than others. He encourages people to disagree with him and give there own reasoning. Here are five of people he put in his book that I liked.

1. Muhammad:

  Muhammad is ranked number 1 in this book, so I think I’ll start with him. Most people would say Muhammad would be in the top 5, but not very many would say number 1. This is why I found him so interesting. The main reason, I think, that he is rated so highly is because he came up with Islam all by himself. He started holy wars that have affected millions of people just in his life time. Those wars led to other wars over time and affected even more people and that’s just the political view of it. The religious view is that many people are on their knees three times a day for a god he said was true. Believers in his religion have to go to Mecca, a city he made holy, at least once in their life time. Not only is it the amount of influence on an individual,but the sheer numbers of people that believe in Islam.

2. Isaac Newton:

Newton is ranked number 2 in the book so why not put him second. I was surprised that Newton was ranked above Jesus. There’s pretty much one solid reason why Newton is ranked so very high. He was by far the best in his field, science. Michelangelo was just as good in his field as Newton if not better. But he is ranked number 50! His reasoning for this is that science is much more influential than art. I don’t think the author is criticizing Michelangelo, just saying that he wasn’t as influential. The difference between Newton and Muhammad is that Newton’s contribution to science is like a base to a pyramid, with other scientists building sections on top of his but his piece always being the largest. Muhammad just made the whole pyramid. But wait, why is Newton ranked higher than Christ?