Can a GREAT book change the world? And for the BETTER?

But can we count Shakespeare as being a book that changed the world? I don't think it counts as a book any more than music or paintings.

 

Many books have outsize influence, and even gain an aura of "whoa" around them.

Religious texts may do that (some would argue otherwise). The Wealth of Nations did it too. Ricardo's works are influential. Common Sense is credited with being influential as well.

 

"Silent Spring" definitely brought the environment to people's attention; Dickens' books brought the ugly world of debtor's prison and various other social ills to the public. There have been many books over time that have brought, through fiction, the ugliness of societies out of the closet and into the spotlight, and were the catalysts for change. Of course, the rate of that change varies with how entrenched the problems are.

 

That's very true. Especially Oliver Twist, so I've read, about the state of children's lives in the Victorian Work Houses. I suppose that is a point to make actually, it doesn't have to be a huge reaction that dramatically changes the course of history and opens millions to an enlightened future, making a change to the world can be something as simple as making people more aware of a social ill. At least I think so anyway.

 

I guess it depends on your interpretation of the phrase "change the world." To me, that means the entire world and not just the Western world or something similar. So in my mind, only a few books have had such a wide impact, though I don't know if any of them changed the world for the better.

 

I do agree there. I guess I'm using a rather loose interpretation of the phrase 'change the world' anyway.

 

I think we all are. Again, there is no escaping our cultural lenses.

 

Then again, every positive change, no matter where it starts, can continue somewhere else. Taking child labor, for example. Certainly it still exists in parts of the world, but pressure is continuing to be put on those areas where it exists. Think ripple effect.

 

off course, and this has happened multiple times throughout history and still happens. Also, some books became movies that changed the world too.

 

I would say the Harry Potter books changed the world in a way. Just think how many young people started reading book outside of school because of her? Probably inspired many generations to come to read and possibly write.

 

Let's start with a clear definition of 'change.'

 

Strange that no one has mentioned The Communist Manifesto. It's a book directly responsible for the deaths of millions of people! That's certainly world-changing.

There have been many books that changed the world, but sadly, most did so for the worst. The works of Newton, Galileo, Descartes, Leibniz, etc. didn't change the world directly, either.