Read more
Imagine a world without Principia Mathematica, Rights of Man, the Bible, Shakespeare, or the Mahabharata.
Books that Changed History features 75 of the world's most momentous titles - from The Art of War to Anne Frank's Diary - and reveals their far-ranging impact.
Books are the medium through which scientists, storytellers, and philosophers introduce their ideas. Discover seminal religious and political titles, cornerstones of science such as On the Origin of Species, and ancient texts such as the I Ching, which is still used today to answer fundamental questions about human existence.
Get up close to see fascinating details, such as Versalius' exquisite anatomical illustrations in Epitome, Leonardo da Vinci's annotated notebooks, or the hand-decorated pages in the Gutenberg Bible. Discover why Euclid's Elements of Geometry was the most influential maths title ever published, and marvel at rare treasures such as the Aubin Codex, which tells the history of the Aztecs and the early Spanaish colonial period in Mexico.
Books that Changed History gathers stories, diaries, scientific treatises, plays, dictionaries, and religious texts into a stunning celebration of the power of books.
List of contents
- 1: Foreword
- 2: Introduction
- 3: 3000BCE - 999CE
- 1: Ancient Egyptian Books of the Dead
- 2: I Ching
- 3: The Art of War
- 4: Mahabharata
- 5: Dead Sea Scroll
- 6: Vienna Dioscoride
- 7: Book of Kells
- 8: The Blue Qur'an
- 9: Diamond Sutra
- 10: The Exeter Book
- 11: Directory
- 4: 1000-1449
- 1: The Tale of Genji
- 2: The Canon of Medicine
- 3: The Domesday
- 4: The Gospels of Henry the Lion
- 5: Les Très Riches
- 6: Heures du Duc de Berry
- 7: Directory
- 5: 1450 - 1649
- 1: Gutenberg Bible
- 2: Elementa Geometriae
- 3: Nuremberg Chronicle
- 4: Divine Comedy
- 5: Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
- 6: Harmonice Musices Odhecaton
- 7: The Codex Leicester
- 8: Vier Bücher vonmenschlicher Proportion
- 9: Il Principe
- 10: Epitome
- 11: Cosmographia
- 12: Les Prophéties
- 13: Aubin Codex
- 14: The Discoverie of Witchcraft
- 15: Don Quixote
- 16: King James Bible
- 17: Hortus Eystettensis
- 18: Tutte l'opere d'architettura
- 19: Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies
- 20: Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo
- 21: Bay Psalm Book
- 22: Directory
- 6: 1650-1899
- 1: Micrographia
- 2: Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica
- 3: Systema Naturae
- 4: L'Encyclopédie... des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers
- 5: A Dictionary of the English Language
- 6: Bucolica, Georgica, et Aeneis
- 7: Tristram Shandy
- 8: Fables in Verse
- 9: The Wealth of Nations
- 10: Rights of Man
- 11: Songs of Innocence and of Experience
- 12: Birds of America
- 13: Procedure for Writing Words, Music, and Plainsong in Dots
- 14: Baedeker guidebooks
- 15: The Pickwick Papers
- 16: The Holy Land
- 17: Photographs of British Algae:
- 18: Cyanotype Impressions
- 19: Uncle Tom's Cabin
- 20: Leaves of Grass
- 21: On the Origin of Species
- 22: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
- 23: Das Kapital
- 24: The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer Now Newly Imprinted
- 25: Un Coup de Dés Jamais N'Abolira Le Hasard
- 26: Directory
- 7: 1900 Onwards
- 1: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
- 2: The Tale of Peter Rabbit
- 3: The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm
- 4: General Theory of Relativity
- 5: Pro Dva Kvadrata
- 6: Penguin's First 10 Paperback Books
- 7: The Diary of a Young Girl
- 8: Le Petit Prince
- 9: Le Deuxième Sexe
- 10: The Feminine Mystique
- 11: Silent Spring
- 12: Quotations from Chairman
- 13: Mao Tse-tung
- 14: Directory
- 8: Index
- 9: Acknowledgements
About the author
James Naughtie is an award-winning radio presenter and broadcaster, who began his career as a journalist before moving to radio presenting in 1986. For over 20 years he co-presented on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, and he has chaired Radio 4's monthly bookclub since it began in 1997. James Naughtie has chaired both the Man Booker and Samuel Johnson judging panels and written a number of books including The Rivals: The Intimate Story Of A Political Marriage; The Accidental American: Tony Blair And The Presidency; The Making Of Music; The New Elizabethans and The Madness of July.
Summary
Imagine a world without Principia Mathematica, Rights of Man, the Bible, Shakespeare, or the Mahabharata.
Books that Changed History features 75 of the world's most momentous titles - from The Art of War to Anne Frank's Diary - and reveals their far-ranging impact.
Books are the medium through which scientists, storytellers, and philosophers introduce their ideas. Discover seminal religious and political titles, cornerstones of science such as On the Origin of Species, and ancient texts such as the I Ching, which is still used today to answer fundamental questions about human existence.
Get up close to see fascinating details, such as Versalius' exquisite anatomical illustrations in Epitome, Leonardo da Vinci's annotated notebooks, or the hand-decorated pages in the Gutenberg Bible. Discover why Euclid's Elements of Geometry was the most influential maths title ever published, and marvel at rare treasures such as the Aubin Codex, which tells the history of the Aztecs and the early Spanaish colonial period in Mexico.
Books that Changed History gathers stories, diaries, scientific treatises, plays, dictionaries, and religious texts into a stunning celebration of the power of books.
