This week’s article was about an Australian TV programme called
‘Jennifer
Byrne Presents’, a series of specials from the Tuesday Book Club.
Having never seen the programme, all I can do is look at the list of episode
titles, which seem to cover everything from Fantasy
and Erotica, to Writing with Food and War
Stories. A very eclectic mixture!
One episode interested me in particular: Books That Changed the World.
I wonder what was included in that? It reminded me of a question on one of my university
exam. papers. ‘Revolutions are caused by
books. Discuss’. If I remember correctly, my essay answer covered the
effects of books like Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense’, the writings of Voltaire and
Rousseau, and Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’, and how they influenced the revolutions in
the American colonies, France, and Russia.
In a sense, these books changed the world, or at least led
to important changes in some countries. But what about other books? Obviously
the main books of each world religion have had a major impact on the world: the Old and New Testaments of Judaism and Christianity, the Muslim Qu'ran, the Hindu Vedas, the Sikh Adi Granth, and the various Buddhist writings, as well as the scriptures of other religions.
And what about Darwin’s
‘Origin of the Species’ which was the foundation of the evolution theory? Or
Mary Wollstonecraft’s ‘Vindication of the
Rights of Women’, one of the earliest defences of women’s rights? Or ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’, which helped the
anti-slavery lobby prior to the American Civil War? We could even include ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ – tame by
today’s standards, but the release of the unexpurgated edition in Britain in
1960 could be considered a significant event in the sexual revolution
which followed in the sixties.
There are many other books I could name, but I’ll leave it
to you now. What books do you think have changed the world?
All Agatha Christie's novels, she made my teens so rich!
ReplyDeleteThey certainly changed your world, then, Claudia :-)
ReplyDeleteHow about some of the Greek philosophers? And in a more modern vein, I'd argue that Salman Rushdie's earlier writings definitely impacted the Arab world.
ReplyDeletePlato was probably the most influential of the Greek philosophers, Jen, with Socrates and Aristotle not far behind.
ReplyDeleteInteresting thought about Salman Rushdie, but it seems he's slipped into oblivion now.
Very interesting post, Paula. I think To Kill a Mocking Bird must be one of the most influential books and to some extent, The Help is the modern equivalent perhaps.
ReplyDeleteYou know Paula, I'm thinking a bit out of the box here and I'm going to add The Bible and The Koran. These books definately continue to influence people even today. I would definately give my vote to Lady Chatterly's Lover and I might add Madame Bovery and even Anna Karienna given the time period and context they were written in.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
Smiles
Steph
It would be great to believe that dinamic books could change the world, but it doesn't always happen. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck should have changed the lot of immigrant workers, but it didn't. It is a good historical account of the Great Depression and how greatly lives were changed because of it though.
ReplyDeleteA wonderful blog today and I enjoyed reading the comments of others in the discussion.
All the best...
Please forgive my spelling. I gave a new way to spell dynamic. LOL
ReplyDeleteRosemary, I confess to never having read 'To Kill a Mocking Bird'. It's on my TBR list!
ReplyDeleteSteph, I did include the books of each religion. Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina were similar, in a way, to Lady Chatterley within their own eras.
Sarah, that's an interesting point about books which 'should' have changed things but didn't have as much effect as maybe they should have.