Who were the most influential persons in the history of mankind?

Slide 1: Who were the most influential persons in the history of mankind? by Henrik December 2007

Slide 2: Who were the most influential persons in the history of mankind? This question is of course impossible to answer! You may say that every person acts in a context, processes are more important than people, groups of ordinary people are also historical actors, and so on… But the question is thought-provoking and the discussion is more important than the actual list! There are three ranking lists we are going to look at. They come from the following three books:

Slide 3: Book 1 Michael H. Hart (born 1932) is an astrophysicist from the USA. His book The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History has caused many debates since it came out in 1978. The following list is from the new edition 1992.

Slide 4: Book 2 57 Swedish experts in different fields working with the encyclopaedia “Bra Böckers lexikon” made a list and it became a book in 1989. Several, in Sweden, well- known experts participated and the journalist Ulf Nilson (born 1933) wrote a short portrait of the 50 people on the list. The book got the title De 50 som betytt mest: en mänsklighetens ranking list. The book is not available in English. My translation of the title: The 50 Most Important people – A Ranking List of Mankind. As far as I know, this is the first time this list is published on the Internet.

Slide 5: Book 3 A customer wrote this review (at www.amazon.com) about The 100 Most Influential Women of All Time: A Ranking Past and Present by Deborah G. Felder (1995): “I have learned a great deal from reading this book. It is important for all women and men to know these influential women and what they did to affect our world. When read completely, this book can change how we as women perceive ourselves.” The author Deborah G. Felder has worked as a writer, editor and educator. She has taught courses in women’s biography and twentieth-century women’s history. The ranking list was formed by sending questionnaires to one hundred heads of college women’s studies departments.

Slide 6: AND NOW… ARE YOU READY TO LOOK AT THE LISTS?

Slide 7: The 100: A Ranking of The 50 Most The 100 Most Influential the Most Influential Important people – A Women of All Time: A Persons in History Ranking List of Ranking Past and Present Mankind 1. Muhammed 1. Muhammed 1. Eleanor Roosevelt 2. Isaac Newton 2. Jesus Christ 2. Marie Curie 3. Jesus Christ 3. Buddha 3. Margaret Sanger 4. Buddha 4. Isaac Newton 4. Margaret Mead 5. Confucius 5. Johann Gutenberg 5. Jane Addams 6. St. Paul 6. Albert Einstein 6. Mary Wollstonecraft 7. Tsai Lun 7. Karl Marx 7. Susan B. Anthony 8. Johann Gutenberg 8. Aristotle 8. Elizabeth Cady Stanton 9. Christopher Columbus 9. Galileo Galilei 9. Harriet Tubman 10. Albert Einstein 10. Charles Darwin 10. The Virgin Mary

Slide 8: The 100: A Ranking of the The 50 Most Important The 100 Most Influential Women Most Influential Persons in people – A Ranking List of of All Time: A Ranking Past and History Mankind Present 11. Louis Pasteur 11. Confucius 11. Georgia O'Keeffe 12. Galileo Galilei 12. Martin Luther 12. Frances Perkins 13. Aristotle 13. Christopher Columbus 13. Jane Austen 14. Euclid 14. Lenin 14. Mary Harris "Mother" Jones 15. Moses 15. Plato 15. Simone de Beauvoir 16. Charles Darwin 16. Louis Pasteur 16. Queen Elizabeth I 17. Shih Huang Ti 17. Nicolaus Copernicus 17. Rosa Parks 18. Augustus Caesar 18. St. Paul 18. Helen Keller 19. Nicolaus Copernicus 19. James Watt 19. Anne Sullivan 20. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier 20. Mao Zedong 20. Sojourner Truth

Slide 9: The 100: A Ranking of the The 50 Most Important The 100 Most Influential Most Influential Persons in people – A Ranking List of Women of All Time: A History Mankind Ranking Past and Present 21. Constantine the Great 21. Euclid 21. Queen Isabella 22. James Watt 22. Napoleon Bonaparte 22. Florence Nightingale 23. Michael Faraday 23. Moses 23. Karen Horney 24. James Clerk Maxwell 24. Alexander the Great 24. Angelina Grimke 25. Martin Luther 25. Adolf Hitler 25. Sarah Moore Grimke 26. George Washington 26. Michael Faraday 26. Elizabeth Blackwell 27. Karl Marx 27. Tsai Lun 27. George Eliot 28. Orville & Wilbur Wright 28. Thomas Alva Edison 28. Ida Bell Wells-Barnett 29. Genghis Khan 29. Genghis Khan 29. Betty Friedan 30. Adam Smith 30. Gregor Mendel 30. Rachel Carson

Slide 10: The 100: A Ranking of the The 50 Most Important The 100 Most Most Influential Persons in people – A Ranking List of Influential Women of History Mankind All Time: A Ranking Past and Present 31. William Shakespeare 31. Alexander Graham Bell 31. Ella Baker 32. John Dalton 32. George Washington 32. Hannah Arendt 33. Alexander the Great 33. Guglielmo Marconi 33. Mother Teresa 34. Napoleon Bonaparte 34. Wilbur & Orville Wright 34. Melanie Klein 35. Thomas Edison 35. Sigmund Freud 35. Emily Dickinson 36. Antony van Leewenhoek 36. William Shakespeare 36. Golda Meir 37. William T. G. Morton 37. Stalin 37. Virginia Woolf 38. Guglielmo Marconi 38. Alexander Fleming 38. Queen Victoria 39. Adolf Hitler 39. Ludwig van Beethoven 39. Martha Graham 40. Plato 40. Julius Caesar 40. Zora Neale Hurston

Slide 11: The 100: A Ranking of the The 50 Most Important people The 100 Most Influential Most Influential Persons in – A Ranking List of Mankind Women of All Time: A History Ranking Past and Present 41. Oliver Cromwell 41. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen 41. Harriet Beecher Stowe 42. Alexander Graham Bell 42. Leonardo da Vinci 42. Rosa Luxemburg 43. Alexander Flemming 43. Charlemagne 43. Mary McLeod Bethune 44. John Locke 44. Adam Smith 44. Charlotte Bronte 45. Ludwig van Beethoven 45. Johann Sebastian Bach 45. Emily Bronte 46. Werner Heisenberg 46. Edward Jenner 46. Catherine the Great 47. Louis Daguerre 47. Jean-Jacques Rousseau 47. Carrie Chapman Catt 48. Simon Bolivar 48. Archimedes 48. Jane Goodall 49. Rene Descartes 49. James Clerk Maxwell 49. Emma Goldman 50. Michelangelo 50. Constantine the Great 50. Hillary Rodham Clinton

Slide 12: If you want to read what Michael H. Hart writes about the no. 1 person on his list, search for his book The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History at www.amazon.com, and look inside the book! If you are interested in reading number 51 – 100 on the lists, and if you are interested in more 100 lists, I found this website helpful: http://www.adherents.com/people/100_lists.html The end of this PowerPoint presentation – thanks for reading!