The key reasons why people having books to read developed the modern world

The key reasons why people having books to read developed the modern world

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The world today is built on a practically incomprehensible amount of understanding that has been passed down in books.

With such an abundant history of ideas, events, and stories right at our fingertips, it's sometimes easy to forget how incredibly fortunate we are to have the likes of the founder of the hedge fund that owns Waterstones or the CEO of the asset manager with a stake in Amazon books supporting access to a substantial percentage of all the books that have actually ever been written (or the good ones at least). The best books of all time can easily change the way that you take a look at the world, which has actually been true throughout all of history as well. The modern-day world is built on knowledge that has been handed down through books, whether that is ideology, science, or history, and human civilisation would not be anywhere near as advanced as it is today if it had not been for the books that changed minds across the ages.

It can be tough to envision what the world would be like today if the vast bulk of individuals were not able to read, but for the vast bulk of history the large majority of individuals might not, and nor were books accessible even if they could. It was the invention of the printing press towards the close of the 15th that altered that, making books a lot more accessible. Of course, it was still just truly the richest and well-read that could read or write, but it enabled an entire host of advancements in science, art, and thinking to be spread throughout great distances. Consider what would have occurred if the theory of gravity, or of evolution, could not have been dispersed across the globe. Human civilisation rests upon a foundation of books, and we are fortunate to be able to simply log onto a site like the one backed by the co-founder of the impact investor with a stake in World of Books, and quickly access the totality of human understanding.

It is very important to keep in mind that, although plenty of the best modern books of all time tend to be considered ground-breaking works of fiction, for most of mankind's literary history, we did not compose much fiction at all. Most stories would have been sung throughout the great bulk of history, just due to the fact that the large majority of individuals could not read, suggesting that a lot of books were specialised things meant for those few who could comprehend them. After a brief boom throughout the classical era of antiquity, the quantity of literate individuals dropped dramatically throughout the Middle Ages. Books became uncommon treasures, with monks meticulously copying out the enduring traditional texts by hand so as to preserve them, as they were a few of the only members of the populace who could read or write. They were the professional keepers of knowledge like biology and faith that we all have access to in the modern-day world.