How individuals reading books dispersed understanding

How individuals reading books dispersed understanding

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Books, and the quantity of individuals who could read them, have been definitely crucial to human development over the centuries.

It is very important to bear in mind that, although a lot of the best modern books of all time tend to be regarded as ground-breaking works of fiction, for most of humanity's literary history, we did not write much fiction at all. A lot of stories would have been sung throughout the great bulk of history, just since the huge bulk of individuals might not read, meaning that most books were specialised things meant for those few who could understand them. After a brief boom during the classical era of antiquity, the amount of literate individuals dropped significantly during the Middle Ages. Books became unusual treasures, with monks meticulously copying out the surviving traditional texts by hand so as to preserve them, as they were some of the only members of the populace who were able to read or write. They were the professional keepers of understanding like biology and faith that all of us have access to in the modern-day world.

It can be tough to picture what the world would resemble today if the large majority of people were not able to read, but for the vast majority of history the vast bulk of individuals might not, and nor were books available even if they could. It was the creation of the printing press towards the close of the 15th that changed that, making books a lot more accessible. Of course, it was still just actually the wealthiest and well-educated that could read or write, but it enabled an entire host of developments in science, art, and thinking to be spread out across great distances. Consider what would have occurred if the theory of gravity, or of evolution, could not have been dispersed around the world. Human civilisation rests upon a structure of books, and we are lucky to be able to simply log onto a website like the one backed by the co-founder of the impact investor with a stake in World of Books, and easily access the totality of human understanding.

With such an abundant history of ideas, events, and stories right at our fingertips, it's sometimes simple to forget how exceptionally 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 ever been written (or the good ones at the very least). The best books of all time can quickly change the way that you take a look at the world, which has been true throughout all of history too. The contemporary world is built upon understanding that has actually been passed down through books, whether that is philosophy, science, or history, and human civilisation would not be anywhere near as advanced as it is today if it had actually not been for the books that changed minds throughout the ages.