Precisely why people having books to read constructed the contemporary world

Precisely why people having books to read constructed the contemporary world

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The world today is built upon a nearly incomprehensible amount of understanding that has actually been passed down in books.

It's important to remember that, although plenty of the best modern books of all time tend to be considered ground-breaking works of fiction, for most of humankind's literary history, we did not write much fiction at all. Many stories would have been sung throughout the great majority of history, just since the large bulk of individuals could not read, indicating that a lot of books were specialised things meant for those few who might comprehend them. After a short boom during the classical age of antiquity, the amount of literate individuals dropped significantly during the Middle Ages. Books became rare treasures, with monks painstakingly copying out the surviving classic texts by hand so as to preserve them, as they were a few of the only members of the population who were able to read or write. They were the professional keepers of understanding like biology and religious beliefs that we all have access to in the contemporary world.

It can be difficult to imagine what the world would be like today if the vast bulk of individuals were unable to read, but for the large majority of history the vast majority 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 altered 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 happened if the theory of gravity, or of evolution, could not have been dispersed around the world. Human civilisation rests upon a foundation of books, and we are lucky 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 knowledge.

With such an abundant history of concepts, events, and stories right at our fingertips, it's sometimes simple to forget how extremely lucky 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 huge 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 manner in which you take a look at the world, and that has held true throughout all of history also. The modern world is built on understanding 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 throughout the ages.