This category encompasses works of literary merit where the craft of writing is examplary. Written works that lack literary merit or belong more appropriately in another category are not included here. The term “oral tradition” is included in the title because many of the great works of literature began as stories told and retold over generations; eventually someone took the trouble to write down such works as the Christian Bible, the Koran, the Classics of Confucius (though named after Confucius much of this is not attributed to Confucius), the Tiptika (the three baskets of Buddhism), the Thousand and One Nights, and the countless African animal stories. Unfortunately the authors of so many influential works of literature are unknown.

There are many categories or types of literature. The following categories capture the works chosen for the most influential people in literature.

1. Religious Epic - Christian Bible, Koran, Tiptika, the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Mahabharata.

2. Poetry - Homer’s The Odyssey, William Shakespeare’s sonnets, Virgil’s Aeneid, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Matsuo Basho’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North, John Milton’s Paradise Lost.

3. Philosophical Treatise - Confucius’ Analects.

4. Novel - Murasaki’s The Tale of Genji, Cao Chan’s Dream of the Red Chamber, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist.

5. Play - William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Moliere’s Tartuffe, Kalidasa’s Sakuntala, Aristophanes’ The Clouds.

5. Historical writing - Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, Herodotus’ History of the Persian Wars, Livy’s History of Rome.

6. Fable - Aesop’s Tortoise and the Hare.

7. Literary criticism - Aristotle’s Poetics.

8. Translation - Martin Luther’s Christian Bible into high German. King James’ Christian Bible into English.

9. Essay - Michel Montaigne’s Essays, Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women.

10. Biography / Autobiography - Plutarch’s Lives, Johann Goethe’s Poetry and Truth from My Life.

11. Reference - Andrew Bell and Colin Macfarquhar’s Encyclopaedia Britannica.

12. Children - Theodore Geisel’s (Dr. Seuss) The Cat in the Hat.

13. Short story - Edgar Allen Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart.

First, a short list of great literary works that belong at the top of any influential literature list but the writers are unknown.

1. Christian Bible - A collection of books held sacred by Jews and Christians. The Bible is divided into two parts: The Old Testament (originally in Hebrew except for certain Aramaic passages in the books of Ezra and Daniel) and the New Testament (originally in Greek). The Bible is almost the whole religious literature of a people as it developed for more than 1,200 years (c. 1,000 B.C.E. - 100 C.E.). The first five books of the Old Testament represents the highest point ever attained by Hebrew prose.

2. Koran - Islam’s holy book which according to the Islamic faith, was revealed to Mohammad by God over a period of twenty years in the early 600s. In Arabic. The core material is indebted to the Old Testament and the traditions of the Hebrew Talmud (an interpretive commentary on the Old Testament), with some use of Christian and Zoroastrian legends.

3. Tiptika (Three Baskets) of Buddhism - King Asoka of India was the first to have the Buddha’s teachings written down about 250 B.C.E in Pali, a dialect of northern India.

4. Vedas of Hinduism - the earliest scriptures of Hinduism with a probable date of between 1,300 and 1,000 B.C.E. In Sanskrit. 

5. The Upanishads of Hinduism - A series of mystical and philosophic prose works constituting the chief theological documents of ancient Hinduism. In Sanskrit. They cannot be exactly dated, but probably the earliest do not come before 600 B.C.E. The Upanishads are designed to guide the hermit on the path to union with Brahma, the supreme creating God, the Universal Soul or Universal Self, which existed before all else and is the source of all life. By devotion to the Self or God within us which is our real being, by meditation, by renunciation of all worldly desire, one may ultimately achieve union and identificaiton with Brahma. Thus partaking of the eternal and infinite, one may avoid the misery of repeated rebirths.

6. The Classic of Poetry (Book of Songs) - In contrast to other ancient literary cultures, which begin with epics, prose legends, or hymns to the gods, the Chinese tradition begins with lyric poetry. The Classic of Poetry is a collection of 305 songs representing the heritage of the Chou people. The earliest in the collection are believed to date from around 1,000 B.C.E. and the latest from around 600 B.C.E., at which time it seems to have reached something like its present form.

The Classic of Poetry drew from a wide variety of sources. There are temple hymns to the ancnstors of theChou ruling house, narrative ballads on the foundation and history of the dynasty, royal laments, songs of soldiers glorfying ware and deploring war, love songs, marriage songs, hunting songs, songs of women whose husbands had deserted them, banquet songs, peoms of mourningg, and others. As with Homer’s epics in early Greece, knowlege of the Classic of Poetry was consdiered an essential part of cultural education in early China.

By the fourth century B.C.E. it had become one of the texts in the canon of Confucisn classics. As a Confucian classic, the Classic of Poetry reamined an essential part of chinese education up to the twentieth century.

6. Nibelungenlied - A Middle High German narrative poem (c. 1200), one of the most popular and celebrated monuments of German literature. The unknown author drew his materials from the mythology of prehistoric Scandinavia and the semihistorical legends of the tribal migrations of the Germanic peoples, centering around the defeat of the Burgundians by the Huns in C.E. 437.

7. The Thousand and One Nights - Also called The Arabian Nights. A collection of tales in Arabic, built up during the Middle Ages. The first European translation was in French by Antoine Galland, 1704-17. Since then Ali Baba, open sesame, Aladdin and his magic lamp, Sinbad the Sailor, and the Magic Horse have become familiar references. The tales convey the spirit of the Arab and Islamic life. The astounding narratives cover an amazingly wide range of fact and faction. Camel trains, desert riders, the insistent calles to prayers–the solid ground of reality–form the tissue of the scenes.

8. African animal stories

9. Popol Vuh - The Quiche Maya of the west central Guatemalan highlands produced (c. 1555) the most impressive work of literature written to date by a native American. Often called the “American Bible,” it is a Mayan description of the creation and evolution of the world. It is the single most important native source for interpreting the history and culture of pre-Columbian America. A compendium of stories cherished by the ancient, the colonial, and even the modern Maya, the Popol Vuh has been compared with the Odyssey of the Greeks and the Mahabharata of India. Such omnibus compositions, repeatedly mined by the artist and the moralist, serve as cultural touchstones; they dramatize the life of a nation and help bind it together. In the case of the Popol Vuh, as with similar works, the stories have been woven together to form an epic, with threads of continuity that may be called novelistic.

Keeping in mind the list above . . .

1. Johannes Gutenberg (1390-1468) - He started a printing revolution in Europe with movable type (1440) and the printing press. Without an audience no book will be influential. Gutenberg’s invention spread the written word across Europe.  Gutenberg’s first printing was the Bible in German, called the Gutenberg Bible.

2. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) - He is generally regarded as the greatest writer who ever lived. He wrote in Middle English. More than any author, Shakespeare has been translated into other languages and his works have been read and performed in many countries to this day. Generations of playwrights have studied his works and have attempted to emulate his literary virtues. One of his greatest plays, Hamlet has been quoted and analysed more than any other. 

3. Homer (9th-8th? B.C.E.) - Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey in Greek, two epic poems that influenced a wide range of writers over the course of 2,800 years. The Iliad tells of the climax of the Trojan War between the Greeks and the Trojans. The Odyssey relates the travels of Odysseus during his years of wandering after the sack of Troy, and of his eventual return home to Ithaca and his slaying of the rapacious suitors of his faithful wife Penelope. 

All the classical Greek poets and playwrights were deeply influenced by Homer including Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristotle. The Roman authors regarded Homer’s poems as the standard of excellence. Virgil, probably the greatest Roman poet, modelled his masterpiece, the Aeneid, after the Iliad and the Odyssey. No author in history has had such a widespread and long-continued influence.

4. Krsna Dvaipayana Vyasa (c. 550 B.C.E.) - Vyasa means “compiler” or “arranger” indicating that he was probably no more than an esteemed editor of the Mahabharata, one of the great sacred texts of Hinduism. Originally in Sanskrit, in its present form  probably achieved between C.E. 350-500. The vast poem of 100,000 verses is arranged in 18 books, which appears to have grown to its present epic size over a period of 700 years. Like Valmiki, Vyasa appears as an important character in his own poem. Unlike the Ramayana, however, Vyasa’s sprawling epic, which is eight times as long as the Iliad and Odyssey combined, has no pretensions to an aesthetically unified structure. Both the chief episodes and the subsidiary narratives have been a fertile source of themes for generations of poets and artists. 

The most famous section of the poem is a long dialogue between Arjuna, the hero of the epic, and his charioteer Krishna, an avatar (incarnation or form) of Vishnu (one of the primary gods of Hinduism). This section is often reprinted separately as the Bhagavad Gita (”Song of the Blessed Lord”) and is the great devotional classic of Hinduism.

  

5. Virgil; Latin name - Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 B.C.E.) - He was the greatest Roman poet. His masterpiece is the Aeneid in Latin. He also composed Georgics and the Ecolgues. His works quickly established themselves as classics of Latin poetry and exerted great influence on later classical and post-classical literature. The Aeneid relates the wanderdings of the Trojan hero Aeneas after the fall of Troy, his love affair with the Carthaginian queen Dido, his visit to his dead father Anchises in the underworld, his arrival in Italy, and his eventual victory over the hostile Italian peoples led by Turnus.

6. Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) - He wrote the Divine Comedy, one of the greatest epic poems in history. His masterpiece tells of his spiritual journey, in the form of an imagined visit to Hell and Purgatory with Virgil as guide and finally to Paradise with Beatrice, now a blessed spirit, as guide.

He is considered the founding figure of Italian literature. His innovative use of Italian did much to establish a vernacular literature; his Latin treatise De Vulgari Eloquentia (c. 1303) promoted vernacular Italian as a literary language fit to replace Latin.

7. Valmiki - (c. 550 B.C.E.) The Sanskrit epic poem Ramayana (the Way of Rama) by Valmiki is the oldest literary version of the tale of the exile and adventures of Prince Rama, a story that was known from Indian folk traditions as early as the seventh century B.C.E. All we know about Valmiki is gleaned from legends about the circumstances that led him to compose the Ramayana, a work of 24,000 verses, divided into seven “books,” called kanda. It is probable that, like Homer, he gathered and shaped the scattered material of many oral traidtions into the poetic whole that we read today. Valmiki’s Ramayana became the source for a multitutde of versions composed in all the major Indian languages over several centuries. The story has also been preserved in oral traditions by storytellers and continues to be enacted in countless regional folk theaters in India. It would be no exaggeration to say that the Rama story is the great story of Indian civilization, the one narrative that all Indians have known and loved through the ages and whose popularity remains undiminished to this day.

Valmiki’s Ramayana and its later adaptations have been enjoyed by Indian audiences in forms as vastly different as religious plays, bedtime stories, and, most recently, “classic” comics and a television serial. Every year, all over India, millions of readers, listeners, and viewers weep at Rama’s exile and the death of Dasaratha, cheer as the monkey Hanuman leaps the sea to Lanka, share in Sita’s anguish as she climbs the pyre for her trial by fire, and rejoice at the death of Ravana.

8. Tu Fu (712-770) - He is the greatest Chinese poet along with Li Po. Tu combined keen observation of political and social forces with strong moral stature and consummate master of all verse forms. In 744 Tu Fu met Li Po, forming the basis for one of the world’s most famed literary friendships; the two poets devote a number of poems to each other.

The inherent succinctness of Chinese pictograms influenced the characteristic compactness of Chinese poetry, which has been likened to the telegram. Chinese poets always stressed the lyrical heights of joy or depths of sorrow. In contrast to most other national literature, no lengthy epics or long narrative poems exist. Verse has been for many Chinese writers the medium for recording not only life’s moments of intense feeling and conviction, but the countless minor events and scenes of everyday existence as well. They have used it as writers of other cultures have used the diary, the autobiography, or the sketchbook.

Broken Lines

River so blue the birds seem to whiten.

On the green mountainside flowers almost flame.

Spring is dying yet again.

Will I ever go home?

9. Li Po (701-762) - The greatest Chinese poet along with Tu Fu. He was a romantic in his view of life and in his verse. Li frequently celebrated the joy of drinking. He also wrote of friendship, solitude, the passage of time, and the joys of nature. Li Po is probably the best-known Chinese poet in the West. Li Po attracted the best translators and has influenced several generations of American poets, from Ezra Pound to James Wright. Translations of Li Po helped to establish a conversational, intimate tone in modern American poetry. Ezra Pound’s Cathay put him at the center of the revolution in modern verse.

Watching the Waterfall at Lu Mountain

Sunlight steams off purple mist from Incense Peak.

Far off, the waterfall is a long hanging river

flying straight down three thousand feet

like the milky river of stars pouring from heaven.

10. Ovid; Latin name Publius Ovidus Naso (43 B.C.E. - 17 C.E.) - He is tradtionally ranked alongside Virgil and Horace as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. His poetry, much imitated during late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, had a decisive influence on European art and literature for centuries. Ovid’s most famous work is the Metamorphoses, an epic poem drawing on Greek mythology. From the emergence of the cosmos from formless mass into the organized material world to the deification of Julius Caesar many chapters later, the poem weaves tales of transformation. Ovid has inspired many of the greatest authors and artists in history including Shakespeare, Petrarch, Botticelli, Chaucer, Milton, Bernini, Rubens, Pushkin, and Joyce. 

11. Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1342-1400) - Chaucer was the first important secular writer in England, the first influential writer in the English language, and the first English writer to broaden the subject matter of literature beyond the court and the cloister. He was germinal not only to the development of the English language but to the development of our view of the subjects that literature can treat and to our view of authorship. Chaucer was the first English person to emerge as an “author.” His greatest work is The Canterbury Tales, a series of poems in Middle English.

He was the first to use many of the meters and stanza forms which have become standard in English poetry. He was the first English poet to deal extensively with the contemporary scene, to draw sharply individualized portraits, to analyze his characters psychologically, and to impress his readers as a personality in his own right.

This is the third and final part of the Religion / Philosophy / Political Science category.

Political Science is the study of the state and systems of government.

Once a group of people settle down in one place and divide up the labors so each household or small group concentrates on certain tasks for the community the need arises for some of the community to represent the others to manage and complete projects for the good of the whole group.  What has happened is a government has been formed. And so begins the discussion how best to organize the state or government. 

Plato addresses this question in his timeless masterpiece, The Republic. Plato proposed a political system in which the population was divided into three classes, determined by education rather than birth or wealth.  His three groups or classes were rulers, police and armed forces, and civilians. Read The Republic or do some research to find out more about Plato’s ideas about organizing society and the arguments he gives for his plan.

Later thinkers looked at the problem from different angles - some felt that you needed a very strong and powerful ruler (monarchy) with almost unlimited powers to decide the fate of the community.  Others sought a more balanced approach with checks and balances as in a representative democracy with legislative, judicial, and executive branches.  Marx felt that the rulers should control the market (a planned economy) while Smith said ‘hands off’, let the market (the free flow of goods and services being bought and sold by individuals) take care of itself (laissez-faire capitalism). 

Another central concern is the rights of the individual versus the needs of the community in general.  Where do you draw the line when you live in a community with common needs but at the same time the belief that you should have certain individual rights to private property, family privacy, etc?

For thousands of years great political theorists and practitioners have grappled with the question: How best to organize the government given the somewhat contradictory needs of the community (the majority) versus the needs of the individual.  And stepping back more, do you need a government and state bureaucracy at all?  Can individual households manage, on their own, all the issues and problems that come up when a large group of people live in close proximity; sharing resources such as water, electricity, gas, and dealing with the needs for waste disposal, food production, transportation pathways, etc? Is it basically impossible to avoid some form of government when a large group of people live close together?

As you look back in history to Ancient Egypt, to Rome and the Greeks, different forms of government were used with varying degrees of success. Ancient Egypt had all powerful pharaohs that had complete power over everyone else but even then administrators ran the day-to-day operations of the kingdom, making important decisions without input from the pharaoh. 

Where are we today? Generally speaking there are representative democracies running most of the major countries (United States, Japan, Germany, Great Britain to name a few). There are still dictatorships (essentially one-man rule) and communist regimes where the economy is controlled by the central government (North Korea, China, Cuba).  Although communist countries still exist, they have been forced to adjust to capitalistic forces.  Overall, the world economy is capitalistic with the forces of supply and demand determining how goods and services change hands.  Though this is overly simplistic given all the quotas that governments impose on other countries’ goods and the role of governments in assisting their domestic industries with financial assistance, tax breaks, etc.

So, there you have it.  Now, who emerged from the past to give the best, most well thought out arguments, whose ideas gained the most readers, and most importantly, the most followers.

1. Karl Heinrich Marx (1818-1883) - Marx’s writings with Friedrich Engels form the theoretical basis of Communism, as well as many modern forms of socialism. In the century since his writings were published, Communist governments were established in many places, most significantly Russia and China; and in dozens of other countries movements based on his teachings have arisen and have attempted to gain power. Marx and Engels collaborated in the writing of the Communist Manifesto (1848). Thereafter, Marx spent much of his time enlarging the theory of this pamphlet into a series of books, the most important being the three-volume Das Kapital.

2. Aristotle - He is generally considered the founder of political science with his book Politics.  

3. Plato - His book The Republic is a foundational treatise in political science and has been widely read and studied for over 2,000 years.

3. Adam Smith (1723-1790) - Smith is regarded by many as the founder of modern economics. His masterpiece, Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) established theories of labor, distribution, wages, prices, and money and advocated free trade and minimal state interference in economic matters. Laissez-faire, a French term which means literally ‘to leave to do’, was coined to describe a free market economy where market forces would determine supply and demand with little or no state or government intervention. His work was highly influential in terms not only of economic but also of political theory in the following century. 

4. John Locke (1632-1704) - Locke was a founder of empiricism and political liberalism. He is the theoretical architect of what we call democracy. He gave us the basic liberal ideals (the primacy of the pursuit of happiness, the belief in the natural rights of man) and specific principles of government (majority rule, checks and balances) in Two Treatises of Government (1690). As a pure philosopher he was the first to really emphasize epistemology, of how we know things (An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 1690). As a pioneer of modern empiricism, he vehemently opposed the rationalist school of philosophy that ruled the day, declaring that the mind at birth is tabula rasa, that there are no such things as innate ideas, that all ideas come to us through our senses from the material world — a science-oriented way of thinking that opted for limited, but immediately usable knowledge of everyday reality.

5. Niccolo di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (1469-1527) - He is one of the principle founders of modern political thought. His best known work, The Prince (1532), a treatise on statecraft, advises rulers that the acquisition and effective use of power may necessitate unethical methods that are not in themselves desirable. He is thus often regraded as the originator of a political pragmatism in which ‘the end justifies the means.’

6. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) - Mill’s writings on philosophy, economics, and political science deeply impressed contemporary thinkers. His essay On Liberty is the finest argument for the rights of the individual versus the state. He advocated unionism, proportional representation, and women’s rights.

7. Alexander Hamilton - He was the principle author of the The Federalist Papers, eighty-five letters addressed to the public in the newly formed United States that sought to persuade the people that the newly drafted United States Constitution should be ratified by the states. The other two authors were John Jay and James Madison. The Federalist Papers is the most important work in political science ever written in the United States.

8. Charles Montesquieu (1680-1755) - He published L’Esprit des Lois (The Spirit of Laws, 1748), a seminal contribution to political theory which championed the separation of judicial, legislative, and executive powers as being most conducive to individual liberty, holding up the English state as a model. His theories were highly influential in Europe in the late 18th century, as they were in the drafting of the U.S. Constitution.  

9. Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) - His writings were a significant factor in the rise of socialism, nationalism, and totalitarianism. He inspired the leaders of the French Revolution and contributed substantially to modern ideals of democracy and equality.

10. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) - His great work Leviathan, exerted a strong influence on political theory and psychology. He argued that simple rationality made social institutions and even absolute monarchy inevitable. He held that human action was motivated entirely by selfish concerns, notably fear of death.

This category is part of the religion / political science / philosophy category. Philosophy overlaps with religion so some figures, Buddha, Confucius, Lao-Tzu, Mencius, St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas,  Xunzi, and Shankara are in both the religion and philosophy categories.

1. Plato (428/427 - 348/347 B.C.E.) - Plato and Aristotle were the most influential of all philosophers, ancient, medieval, or modern.  Of the two, it was Plato who had the greater effect upon subsequent ages. Plato’s central themes form the basis for Western philosophy and in the words of Alfred North Whitehead, one of the 20th century’s greatest philosophers and mathematicians, “All philosophers that followed Plato are merely footnotes to him.” Plato is the most influential in large part because he invented what came to be called metaphysics, the study of true being. Metaphysics means roughly: the quest for true being beneath, behind, above, or within the world of appearance–the quest for deep truths or higher realities to be grasped by the inquiring or contemplative mind. 

2. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) - Aristotle along with Socrates and Plato laid the philosophical foundations of Western culture. In metaphysics, he rejected Plato’s doctrine of forms or ideals; for him form and matter were the inseparable constituents of all existing things.

3. Confucius (551-479 B.C.E) - He founded Confucianism which is the philosophical underpinning for the Chinese people specifically and the rest of Asia more generally.

4. Buddha (c. 656-483 B.C.E.) - The Buddhist philosophy is widely practiced throughout Asia. The founder of Buddhism espoused a philosophy without a god, of which the central doctrine is karma. The basic teachings of Buddhism are contained in the ‘four noble truths’: that all existence is suffering, that the cause of suffering is desire, that freedom from suffering is nirvana, and that nirvana may be attained through the ‘eightfold path’ that combines ethical conduct, mental discipline (in particular the practice of meditation), and wisdom.

5. Socrates ( 469-399 B.C.E.) - Although he wrote nothing himself, he was immensely influential. He is known chiefly through his disciple Plato, who recorded Socrates’ dialogues and teachings in, for example, the Symposium and the Phaedo. He laid the philosophical foundations of Western culture along with Plato, his student, and Aristotle, Plato’s student.

6. Rene Descartes (1596-1650) - He is considered the founder of modern Western philosophy. Aiming to reach totally secure foundations for knowledge, he began by attacking all his beliefs with sceptical doubts. What was left was the certainty of his own conscious experience, and with it of his existence: ‘Cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am). From this certainty he argued for the existence of God (as the first cause) and the reality of the physical world. He also developed a dualistic theory of mind (conscious experience) and matter.

7. Laozi or Lao Tzu (c. 604-c. 531 B.C.E.) - Lao Tzu founded Taoism, one of the main underpinings of Chinese philosophy.

8. Mencius (c. 371-c. 289 B.C.E.) - The most revered of all Confucian scholars; he spread Confucianism. Two of his central doctrines were that rulers should provide for the welfare of the people and that human nature is intrinsically good. The teachings of Mencius formed the basis of primary and secondary education in imperial China from the 14th century.

9. Shankara (788-822) - Among the nine schools of Indian philosophy, Vedanta has been recognized as the most important and well known. This school bases itself on the teachings of the Upanishads, which form the concluding portion of the Vedas, the Hindu scriptural texts. Shankara was the founder of Advaita Vedanta, the non-dualistic school of Vedanta. The entire philosophy of Shankara can be summed up in the following statement; Brahma satyam, pagan mithya, jivo brahmaiva naparah (Brahman is real, the world is false, the self is not different from Brahman).

10. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) - He made sweeping revisions in nearly all branches of philosophy.

11. Avicenna (980-1037) - Persian-born Islamic philosopher whose philosophical system, while drawing heavily on Aristotle, is closer to Neoplatonism, and was the major influence on the development of 13th-century scholasticism (mainly a method of speculation which aimed at a better understanding of Christianity). Neoplatonism originated with Plotinus, a Roman, and was a synthesis of elements from the philosophies of Plato, Pythagoras, Aristotle, and the Stoics, with overtones of Eastern mysticism.  He is considered the most influential Islamic (Muslim) philosopher and provided a critical link, keeping alive the ideas of the Greek philosophers especially Aristotle and Plato until the Christian theologians/philosophers of the 13th-century (most significantly St. Thomas Aquinas) incorporated his ideas through Latin translations.

12. Averroes (c. 1126-1198) - The second most influential Muslim philosopher, who wrote commentaries on Aristotle, which, through a reliance on Neoplatonism, interpreted Aristotle’s writings in such a way as to make them consistent with Plato’s, and sought to reconcile the Greek and Arabic philosophical traditions. His commentaries exercised a strong and controversial influence on the succeeding centuries of Western philosophy.

13. Saint Augustine (354-430) - He became bishop of Hippo in North Africa in 396. Catholic philosophy begins with Augustine and from the 400s to the 1300s Western philosophy in general came from churchmen. His theology has dominated all later Western theology, with its psychological insight, its sense of man’s utter dependence on grace (expressed in his doctrine of predestination), and its conception of the Church and the sacraments.

14. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 ) - Catholic philosophy culminates with St. Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas established the basis for modern Christian Catholicism.

15. Zhuxi (1130-1200) - He wrote commentaries on four ancient Confucian texts (called the “Four Books”) which were published as a unit in 1190 and were used as official subject matter for civil service examinations in China from 1313 to 1905 (about 600 years). Also they usually serve to introduce Confucian literature to Chinese students.

16. Karl Heinrich Marx (1818-1883) - A German political philosopher whose writings with those of Friedrich Engels formed the basis of modern communism.  Communism as a political system was adopted by countries across the world, most significantly, the Soviet Union and China. Today only a few countries still follow the Communist doctrines including China, North Korea, and Cuba.

17. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) - Bacon’s major contribution was that inductive logic–the process of reasoning from the specific to the general–be used for scientific discovery, an approach embraced by modern science.  His two great works are The Advancement of Learning and Novum Organum.

18. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) - His writings are said to have been a significant factor in the rise of socialism, nationalism, romanticism in literature, totalitarianism, and anti-rationalism, as well as having inspired the leaders of the French Revolution and contributed substantially to modern ideals of democracy and equality. Also Rousseau’s ideas have profoundly influenced modern educational theory. Rousseau minimized the importance of book learning in a child’s education, recommended that a child’s emotions should be educated before his reason, and emphasized the importance of a child’s learning through experience. 

19. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) - Nietzsche was one of the most flamboyant and controversial philosophers ever, vehemently opposed to virtually all established culture and morality. His main period of creativity began in 1872 with the publication of his first book the Birth of Tragedy and lasted until 1889, when his mental instability developed into permanent insanity. Some of his other major works include Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883-5) and Beyond Good and Evil (1886). His influence can be seen in existentialism and in the work of such varied figures as Michel Foucault, Martin Heidegger, and George Bernard Shaw. The principle features of his writings are contempt for Christianity, with its compassion for the weak, and exaltation of the ‘will to power’ and of the Ubermensch (superman), superior to ordinary morality, who will replace the Christian ideal. He divided humankind into a small, dominant ‘master-class’ and a large, dominated ‘herd’ — a thesis which was taken up in a debased form by the Nazis after Nietzsche’s death.

20. Epicurius (341-270 B.C.E.) - He founded schools of epicurean philosophy that survived directly from the 4th century B.C.E. until the 4th century C.E. The school rejected determinism and advocated hedonism (pleasure as the highest good), but of a restrained kind: mental pleasure was regarded more highly than physical and the ultimate pleasure was held to be freedom from anxiety and mental pain, especially that arising from needless fear of death and of gods.

21. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) - His theory of the predominance of the will influenced the development of Freudian psychoanalysis and via Nietzsche, existentialism. His pessimistic philosophy is based on studies of Kant, Plato, and the Hindu Vedas, and is embodied in his principal work The World as Will and Idea (1819). According to this, the will (self-consciousness in man and the unconscious forces of nature) is the only reality. The material world is an illusion created by the will. This will is a malignant thing, which deceives us into reproducing and perpetuating life. Asceticism and chastity are the duty of humankind, with a view to terminating the evil. Egoism, which manifests itself principally as ‘the will to live’, must be overcome. 

22. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegal (1770-1831) - His philosophy represents a complex system of thought with far-reaching influences and diverse applications. He is especially known for his three-stage process of dialectical reasoning (set out in his Science of Logic, 1812-16), which underlies his idealist concepts of historical development and the evolution of ideas. Marx based his theory of dialectical materialism on this aspect of Hegel’s work. Other major works include The Phenomenology of Mind (1807), which descries the progressions of the human mind from consciousness through self-consciousness, reason, spirit, and religion to absolute knowledge.

23. Mao Zedong (1893-1976) - China’s most powerful and influential person from 1949 to 1976. His theories of government called Maoism had a pervasive influence on the Chinese, fundamentally changing China.

24. Auguste Comte (1798-1857) - He is usually considered the founder of modern sociology. Sociology is the study of human social behavior, espeically the study of the origins, organization, institutions, and development of human society.

25. Maria Montessouri (1870-1952) - Montessouri’s success with mentally retarded children led her, in 1907, to apply similar methods to youger children of normal intelligence. Montessouri’s system, set out in her book, The Montessouri Method (1909), advocates a child-centered approach, in which the pace is largely set by the child and play is free but guided, using a variety of sensory materials. Her ideas have since become an integral part of modern nursery and infant-school education.

26. John Dewey (1959-1952) - Working in the pragmatic tradition of William James and C. S. Pierce, he defined knowledge as successful practice, and evolved the educational theory that children would learn best by doing. He published his ideas in The School and Society (1899) and convinced many American educationists that it was necessary to create less structured, more pupil-centered, practical schools.

27. Zeno of Citium (c. 335 - c. 263 B.C.E.) - He founded the school of Stoicism. Stoisicm taught that virtue, the highest good, is based on knowledge, and that only the wise are truly virtuous; the wise live in harmony with the divine Reason (also identified with Fate and Providence) that governs nature, and are indifferent to the vicissitudes of fortune and to pleasure and pain (and hence ’stoic’ in the popular sense). Stoicism was particularly influential among the Roman upper classes, numbering Seneca and Marcus Aurelius among its followers.    

Religion is one of ten categories I decided on to divide the 500 people I chose as the most influential in history. The religion category has 72 choices and is the second largest category after “Politics.” Deciding who was the most influential began with the question:  Which religions are the most widely practiced in the world and who best represents those religions overall? So I rank the founders of the major religions at the top followed by individuals who first spread the major faiths.

1. Jesus Christ (c. 6 B.C.E.-c. 44 C.E.) - Jesus founded Christianity, the largest religion in the world with almost two billion followers.

2. Muhammad (c. 570-632) - Muhammad founded Islam, the 2nd largest religion, with over one billion members.

3. Buddha (c. 656-c. 483 B.C.E.) - Buddha founded Buddhism, with the fourth largest religious following of about 350 million members worldwide. The picture shows Buddha in the center being tempted by various spirits.

4. Confucius (551-479 B.C.E.) - Confucius founded Confucianism, the philosophical underpinning for the Chinese people specifically and the rest of Asia more generally.

5. Mary and Joseph (c. 20 B.C.E.-c. 40 C.E.)  - This couple are the parents of Jesus. According to the Christian Gospels and Islam’s Koran, Mary was a virgin who conceived Jesus by the power of God.

6. Laozi / Lao Tzu (c. 604-c. 531 B.C.E.) - Lao Tzu founded Taoism, one of the main underpinnings of the Chinese religion.

7. Abraham and Sarah (c. 2,000-1,825 B.C.E.) - Abraham is the father of the three monotheistic faiths (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism). God singles him out and favors him with the second covenant that brings numerous progeny, land, livestock, and a relationship with God that will benefit other families.

8. Moses (c. 1,300-1,180 B.C.E.) - He is the most significant figure in Jewish history. He led the Hebrew people’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage. Moses oversaw Israel’s stay at Sinai, where another covenant with God was made and laws governing life and worship were promulgated. This covenant is regarded as a ratification and extension of the covenant with the ancestors i.e. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For Muslims, Moses is one of the eighteen Prophets.

9. Paul of Tarsus (c. 5- c. 67) - Paul is the most important early advocate of Christianity, second only to Jesus. He traveled widely in the Mediterranean region spreading the Christian faith.

10. Matthew (1st century C.E.) - Matthew was an apostle of Christ. He is traditionally regarded as the author of the Book of Matthew, which recounts the story of Jesus’ life and is a principle part of the New Testament. His book contains the Sermon on the Mount, the essence of Christianity.  The New Testament is the most important document in the Christian faith.

11. Mark (1st century C.E.) - An apostle of Christ who is traditionally regarded as the author of the Book of Mark, which recounts the story of Jesus’ life and is a principle part of the New Testament.

12. Luke (1st century C.E.) - A disciple of Christ who is traditionally regarded as the author of the Book of Luke, which recounts the story of Jesus’ life and is a principle part of the New Testament.

13. John the Evangelist (1st century C.E.) - An apostle of Christ who is traditionally regarded as the author of the Book of John, which recounts the story of Jesus’ life and is a principle part of the New Testament.

14. Martin Luther (1483-1546) - The founder of the Protestant Reformation which began the great split among Christians.  He founded Lutherism and translated the Bible into High German.

15. John Calvin (1509-1564) - His book, Institutes of the Christian Religion, became the single most important statement of Protestant belief.  He founded Calvinism. Calvin has a strong influence on Puritans, American Congregationalists and Presbyterians.

16. ‘Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (c. 586-644) - He followed Abu Bakr as the second caliph (”successor” to Muhammad) and was the principal figure in the spread of Islam.

17. Asoka (c. 300 B.C.E.-c. 232 B.C.E.) - More than anyone, except Buddha himself, Asoka is responsible for the development of Buddhism into a major world religion.

18. Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1390-1468) - Gutenberg brought the key elements of printing to fruition creating a complete manufacturing process allowing for rapid and accurate printing of material. This acheivement exponentially increased the dissemination of information across Europe including the Bible which had a profound impact on Europe’s and North America’s religious development.  

19. Valmiki (c. 550 B.C.E.) - He wrote the Ramayana, an epic of Hinduism.

20. Vyasa (c. 550 B.C.E.) - Vyasa wrote the Hindu epic, The Mahabharata.

21. Zoroaster (c. 600 B.C.E.) - Zoroaster was the founder of Zoroastrianism. This religion was widely practiced in Perisa (modern day Iran) before Islam started in the 600s. It likely influenced the development of Judaism and the birth of Christianity.

22. Adam and Eve (c. 4,000-3,070 B.C.E., based on Biblical chronology) - The first man and woman according to the Christian Bible and the Islamic Koran.

23. Noah (c. 3,000-2,050 B.C.E.), based on Biblical chronology) - Chosen by God to preserve the human race and two of every animal. God makes his first covenant with Noah and, through him, with all of humanity, the non-human creatures, and the earth itself. For Muslims, he is one of the 18 Prophets.

24. Dalai Lama, the first one was Dge- ‘dun-grab-pa (1391-1475) - Founder of the Tibetan Buddhists, the Dalai Lama is the spirtual and temporal ruler of Tibet.

25. Mencius (c. 371-c. 289 B.C.E.) - The most revered of all Confucian scholars; he spread Confucianism.

26. Guru Nanak (1469-1539) - The founder of Sikhism (around 1500), the fifth most widely practiced religion with about 23 million followers.

27. Jacob and Rachel (c. 1,850 B.C.E.) - Succeeding Isaac in this new generation, God singles him out and favors him with a covenant that brings great wealth - many children, land, and livestock. He is the tradtional ancestor of the Israeli people. Ten of his sons and two of his grandsons are each a leader of one of the twelve tribes of Israel.

28. Xuanzang (602-664) - He spread Buddhism in China after a trip to India.

29. Constantine the Great (c. 274-337) - The first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, he made Christianity a state religion in 324. His adoption of Christianity and by his various policies encouraging its growth, he played a major role in transforming it from a persecuted sect into the dominant religion of Europe.

30. Hernan Cortes (1484-1547) - Cortes defeated the Aztec Empire (1519-1521) and imposed on the region of present-day Mexico the Christian religion that continues to the present.

31. Francisco Pizarro (c. 1475-1541) - In 1533 Pizarro destroyed the Inca Empire which had controlled present-day Peru and Ecuador, the northern half of Chile, and part of Bolivia. He established Spanish rule and founded the city of Lima, Peru in 1535. As a result of Pizarro’s conquest, the Christian religion was instilled on the whole region to this day. 

32. King David (c. 1,017 B.C.E.) - David was the second king of the Jewish state in Palestine. He slew the giant Goliath in his youth. Bathsheba was his second wife and mother of King Solomon.

33. Isaac and Rebecca (c. 1,900 B.C.E.) - He succeeds Abraham as the leader of the Jewish people.

34. Joseph (c. 1,820-1,710 B.C.E.) - He is the favored son of Jacob. He is sold into slavery by his brothers and against all odds becomes the top administrator to the Pharoah of Egypt.  Later he saves his family (i.e. the brothers who become ten of the twelve tribes of Israel) from starvation.

35. Joshua (c. 1,200 B.C.E.) - He is the successor to Moses and leader of the successful Israeli invasion and settlement of Canaan, the Promised Land for Jews (modern day Israel).

36. Shotoku Taishi or Umayado, his original name (574-622) - The regent of Japan, he spread Buddhism, most importantly, but also Confucianism in Japan.

37. Isaiah (c. 765-c. 701 B.C.E.) - Isaiah was the greatest of the Hebrew prophets.

38. Ishmael (c. 1,900 B.C.E.) - In the Islamic tradition, singled out over Isaac to form a covenant with God. He is the founder of the new Arab nation.

39. Job (none) - A fictitious character but his story is a masterpiece of literature about human suffering and the way a person responds.  The name of a book of the Bible, it probes the question:  Do human beings serve God because of what they receive from God?

40. Cardinal Humbert (c. 1,000-1,061) - Humbert excommunicated the Eastern branch of Christianity which began the great East-West schism resulting in the Eastern and Western Orthodox branches of Christianity in 1054.

41. Saint Augustine (354-430) - Augustine was one of the men responsible for the consolidation of the Church in the West, especially for the systematization of its doctrine and policy. He wrote Confessions and The City of God, influential commentaries on the Christian faith.

42. Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) - Aquinas established the basis for modern Christian Catholicism.

43. Saint Jerome (c. 342-420) - Jerome translated the Old Testament of the Bible into Latin from the original Hebrew (called the Vulgate Bible).

44. Bodhidharma (c. 550) - He is the founder of Zen or Ch’an Buddhism.

45. Zhuangzi (c. 399-295 B.C.E.) - He was important in spreading Taoism in China.

46. King Saul (c. 1,040 B.C. E.) - Saul was Israel’s first king.

47. King Solomon (c. 977 B.C.E.) - He was Israel’s third king and the son of Bathsheba.

48. Zhuxi (1130-1200) - He wrote commentaires on four ancient Confucian texts (called the “Four Books”) which were published as a unit in 1190 and were used as official subject matter for civil service examinations in China from 1313 to 1905 (about 600 years).  Also they usually serve to introduce Confucian literature to Chinese students.

49. John the Baptist (c. 30 B.C.E.-c. 30 C.E.) - He is revered in the Christian Church as the forerunner of Jesus Christ. For Muslims, he is one of the eighteen prophets. He baptized Jesus in C.E. 27. Herod Antipas, second of four rulers of Palestine named Herod, was responsible for his beheading.

50. Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) - A Jewish philosopher and Rabbinic scholar, his books had a great influence on medieval (400s-1400s) Christian thought. 

51. Eisai (c. 1150) - Eisai introduced Zen Buddhism to Japan.

52. James I (1566-1625) - He spearheaded a new translation of the Bible into English called the King James Bible, first published in 1611.  This became the authoritative translation and set a new standard for scholarship.  In 1769 an updated standard text was issued to replace the original of 1611. This updated version remained unchanged and maintained its dominance in the English-speaking world through the first half of the 20th century.

53. Francis of Assisi (c. 1182-1226) - He started the Franciscan brotherhood of monks who spread Christianity.

54. Ramanuja (c. 1017-1137) - The single most influential thinker of devotional Hinduism. He was a south Indian Brahman theologian and philosopher.

55. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) - A Spanish theologian and one of the founders of the Jesuits (Society of Jesus), an order of priests that spread Catholic beliefs throughout the world.

56. Xunzi (c. 300-c. 230 B.C.E.) - Xunzi elaborated and systematized the work of Confucius and Mencius.

57. Pope Leo III (c. 750-816) - A Byzantine Emperor who crowned Charlemagne, Holy Roman Emperor in 800 and thus demonstrated the primacy of papal power over temporal rulers.

58. Pope Innocent III (1160-1216) - He was instrumental in shaping the Catholic Church. He launched two Crusades against Islam.

59. John (1703-1791) and Charles Wesley (1707-1788) - John and Charles co-founded Methodism, a branch of Protestant Christianity.

60. Mozi (c. 470-391 B.C.E.) - Mozi was the founder of Moism, an important religious movement in China.

61. Pope Urban II (c. 1042-1099) - He launched Crusades or holy wars against the Muslim rulers of Palestine (present day Israel) in 1096.

62. Pope Julius II (1502-1585) - Julius commissioned works by Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, and Raphael, three of the world’s greatest artists, for the Vatican, that added great prestige to the Catholic Church.

63. Joseph Smith (1805-1844) - He founded Mormonism.

64. Akhenaton reigned at first as Amenhotep IV (1379-1362 B.C.E.) - Unique in Ancient Egyptian history, the pharoah Akhenaton, believed there was only one God, a very early monotheistic religion.

65. Herod the Great (73-4 B.C.E.); Herod Antipas (21 B.C.E.- 39 C.E.) ; Herod Agrippa I (c. 10 B.C.E.-44 C.E.); Herod Agrippa II (27-c. 93) - Herod the Great was the first of four rulers of ancient Palestine (modern Israel) named Herod. He rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem. Herod Antipas was the son of Herod the Great and was responsible for beheading John the Baptist. Herod Agrippa I was the grandson of Herod the Great, he imprisoned Apostle Peter and put Apostle James to death. Herod Agrippa II was the son of Herod Agrippa I and presided over the trial of St. Paul.

66. Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) - An Italian Jesuit missionary who introduced Christianity to the Chinese empire in the 16th century.

67. William (1829-1912) and Catherine Miller (1829-1890) - The Millers were co-founders of the Salvation Army which spread Christianity and helped the needy through missions, facilities that provided shelter and food.

68. Sankara or Shankaracharya (700-750) - A south Indian Brahmin religious leader who decisively ejected Buddhism from India during the 800s, about 1,300 years ago.

69. Max (Friedrich) Muller (1823-1900) - Muller edited The Sacred Books of the East, 51 volumes that compare Asian religions. His text spread knowledge of Asian religions to Western countries.

70. Ibn-Taymiyah (1263-1328) - He was an important interpreter who sought the return of the Islamic religion to its sources - the Koran and the sunnah.

71. Jalal ad-Din Rumi-ar or Mawlana (1207-1273) - Rumi was the greatest Sufi mystical poet in the Persian language. Sufis (Muslim mystics) spread Islam in India, Central Asia, Turkey, and sub-Saharan Africa.

72. Desiderius Erasmus (1466?-1536) - Erasmus’ Greek New Testament (1516) was the first printed edition of the Bible in Greek. Equally significant, since it was based on intensive study of early manuscripts, it exposed inaccuracies in the Vulgate Bible and shook the foundation on which Christian theological discussions had relied for a thousand years. It may be said to have initiated biblical textual criticism. He also translated the New Testament into Latin.

1. Euclid of Alexandria / YOO-klid (c. 300 B.C.E.) - Euclid was a Greek mathematician famous for his Elements in thirteen “Books” or section (396 pages) which gathered together 465 propositions from plane and solid (three-dimensional) geometry and from number theory that had developed in Greek mathematics. This was the standard work for teaching geometry until the 1900s, about 2,100 years. “. . . many scholars believe (The Elements) is second only to the Bible in its importance to Western intellectual history.”

2. Isaac Newton / Noo-t’n (1642-1727) - Newton independently created the calculus, one of the main branches of mathematics. He discovered the three laws of motion and the universal law of gravitation. Calculus has been one of the most influential tools for understanding our world that has ever been devised in the entire history of humankind.

3. Archimedes / ahr-kuh-MEE-deez (287-212 B.C.E.) - Archimedes is one of the top three mathematicians with Newton and Gauss. He was an early pioneer in mechanical engineering. He can also be regarded as the father of mathematical physics. David Rivault’s Latin translation (1615) of Archimedes’ complete works was enormously influential in the work of Rene Descartes and Pierre de Fermat. Without the background of the rediscovered ancient mathematicians, amongst whom Archimedes was paramount, the development of mathematics in Europe between 1550-1650 is inconceivable.

4. Carl Friedrich Gauss / GOUS, KARL FREE-drick (1777-1855) - Gauss is one of the top three mathematicians with Archimedes and Newton. He contributed great ideas to most branches of mathematics.

5. Leonhard Euler / OY-lehr, LAY-on-ard (1707-1783) - “Euler was the key figure in eighteenth-century mathematics and the dominant theoretical physicist of the century; the man who should be ranked with Archimedes, Newton, and Gauss . . .” Euler, who worked mainly in St. Petersburg and Berlin, was a prolific and original contributor to all branches of mathematics. He not only made decisive and formative contributions to the subject of geometry, calculus, mechanics, and number theory but also developed methods for solving problems in observational astronomy and demonstrated useful applications of mathematics in technology and public affairs.

6. Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi / ahl-khwahr-IZ-mee (780-c. 850) - Al-Khwarizmi was a Persian mathematician who was perhaps the greatest medieval mathematician. He is known as the father of algebra. As Ptolemy before him, Al-Khwarizmi contributed effectively to mathematics, astronomy and geography.

7. Brahmagupta / bruh-muh-GOOP-tuh (598-c. 660) - At age 30 he composed his major work, the Brahmasphutasiddhanta (Brahma’s Revised System), an astronomical work in Sanskrit verse. His work contains the principle of the decimal place-value system using the nine Indian numerals and the zero; calculation methods in arithmetic and the basics of Indian algebra, and he defines infinity as the number whose denominator is zero. “It. . .seems quite likely that not only Indian astronomy, but mathematics too, were introduced to the Muslims through the work of Brahmagupta.”

8. Ptolemy of Alexandria / TAHL-uh-mee (c. 100-178) - Ptolemy wrote the Mathematiki Syntaxis (Mathematical Collection, 460 pages), which was by far the most influential and significant trigonometric work of all antiquity. Trigonometry deals with the relations of the sides and angles of triangles and with the relevant functions of any angles. The terms sine, cosine, and tangent describe various relationships between the sides of a right-angled triangle. His book was also the most influential astronomical work from the time it was written until the sixteenth century, and it was copied and analyzed countless times.

9. Thales of Miletus / THAY-leez (c. 624-c. 545 B.C.E.) - Thales is considered the founder of geometry and therefore laid the groundwork for later Greek mathematicians including Euclid and Archimedes. Using deductive reasoning, Thales used certain known relationships to deduce (find) new relationships called theorems. The introduction of proof by deductive reasoning by Thales was one of the most important steps in the development of human thought processes.

10. Pythagoras of Samos / pi-THAHG-uh-rus (c. 560-480 B.C.E.) - Pythagoras of Samos is generally credited with the discoveries of the incommensurability of the side and diagonal of a square, and the Pythagorean theorem for right angles. In astronomy, his analysis of the courses of the sun, moon, and starts into circular motions was not set aside until the 17th century.

11. Apollonius of Perga / ahp-uh-LOH-nee-uhs (c. 260-190 B.C.E.) - Greek mathematician who was the first to use the terms ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola for three different classes of curves in his surviving work the Conics (194 pages). He also dealt with other aspects of higher geometry and from his astronomical studies he originated the concept of epicycles, in order to account for the retrograde motion of the outer plants. Retrograde motion in this case is actually an illusion because the earth has merely overtaken the planet in its orbit creating the apparent reverse motion.

12. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz / LIEB-nihtz (1646-1716) - Leibniz devised a method of calculus independent of Newton and was instrumental in its early dissemination across Europe.

13. Joseph-Louis Comte de LaGrange /zho-SEF loo-EE la-GRAHNZH (1736-1813) - LaGrange’s most influential work was the Traite de mecanique analytique (Characteristics of Analytical Mechanics, 1788), which was the culmination of his extensive work on mechanics and its application to the description of planetary and lunar motion. All later work in this field was based on his book. Second, and just as significant, Lagrange became the leading spirit in formulating the metric system. The metric system was adopted by the French government on November 25, 1792, and became the most widely used system of weights and measures in the world.

14. Aryabhata I / ahr-yuh-BUH-tah (476-c. 550) - He took some of the first steps towards a positional number system with his “syllable-numbers.” The vowels in each syllable of these words indicated ones, tens, or hundreds. Aryabhata’s method may seem an awkward, confusing one, however it laid the groundworrk for Bhaskara I. This mathematician, who lived from 598-c. 665, introduced an improved system which was positional.  The way we count today, the base 10 system, is a positional system, that was first developed by Aryabhata I, then spread to Islam and then throughout the world.

15. Pierre de Fermat / fehr-MAH (1601-1665) - The modern theory of probability is usually considered to begin with the correspondence of Blaise Pascal and Fermat in 1654, partially in response to the gambling questions Antoine Gombaud, the chevalier de Mere, presented to Pascal. His study of the problems of finding tangents to curves, finding areas under curves, and maxima and minima, led directly to the general methods of calculus introduced by Sir Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz. Fermat made many discoveries about integers, for which he is seen as the founder of the theory of numbers. Euclid’s Elements contains some number theory but Fermat’s work was more comprehensive so he is credited as the founder.

16. Zhu Shijie (Pinyin); Chu Shih-chieh (Wade-Giles) / joo shee-jee (fl. 1280-1303) - Zhu Shijie was the last and greatest of the Sung Dynasty (960-1279) mathematicians. The 1200s marked the high point of Chinese mathematics. “With Chu Shih-Chieh the high-water mark of Chinese algebra is reached.”

17. Al-Biruni, in full Abu Ar-Rayhan Muhammad Ibn Ahmad / ahl-BYEROO-nee (973-1048) - Al-Biruni gave the best medieval account of the Hindu numerals which are the basis of the counting system we use today.  The Indians developed a base 10 system with number symbols that evolved into the 10 symbols we use today (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0).

18. Augustin Louis Cauchy / koh-SHEE (1789-1857) - Cauchy’s numerous textbooks and writings introduced new standards of criticism and rigorous argument in calculus, from which grew the field of mathematics known as analysis. He transformed the theory of complex functions by discovering his integral theorems and introducing the calculus of residues. Cauchy also founded the modern theory of elasticity, produced fundamental new ideas about the solution of differential equations, and contributed substantially to the founding of group theory.

19. Blaise Pascal /blez pa-SKAL or pah-SKAHL (1623-1662) - Pascal shares with Fermat in developing the theory of probabilities which insurance companies later adopted for actuarial tables of sickness and mortality. When he was 19, he invented one of the first mechanical calculators for sale.

20. Bernoulli Family, Jakob (1654-1705), Johann (1667-1748), Daniel (1700-1782) / behr-NEWL-ee / - Jakob made discoveries in calculus, which he used to solve minimization problems, and he contributed to geometry and the theory of probabilities. Jakob’s Ars Conjectandi (The Art of Conjecturing, 1713) was one of the most important early contributions to probability theory. Jakob’s brother, Johann also contributed to differential and integral calculus; exceeding his elder brother Jakob in the number of contributions made to mathematics. Daniel, son of Johann, wrote Hydrodynamica (Hydrodynamics), in which he considered the properties of basic importance in fluid flow, particularly pressure, density, and velocity, and set forth their fundamental relationship. He put forward what is called Bernoulli’s principle, which states that the pressure in a fluid decreases as its velocity increases.  He first derived what is called Bernoulli’s theorem, in fluid dynamics, relating the pressure, velocity, and elevation in a moving fluid (liquid or gas). His theorem is the basis for many engineering applications, such as aircraft-wing design.

21. Jules Henri Poincare (1854-1912) - Poincare is the most important figure in the theory of differential equations and the mathematician who, after Newton, did the most remarkable work in celestial mechanics.  He is one of the four founders of topology, a broad and fundamental branch of mathematics.

22. Seki Kowa (or Takakazu because of different ways of reading the Japanese characters giving his name) (1642-1708) - The father of the modern mathematical tradition in Japan, called Wasan, that was based on Chinese mathematics.

23. Diophantus of Alexandria / die-uh-FAN-tus (c. 250) - In his work Arithmetica he was the first to introduce symbolism into Greek algebra and his propositions in number theory were taken up by mathematicians of the seventeenth century, generalized, and proved, thereby creating modern number theory.

24. Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann / REE-mawn (1826-1866) - He founded Riemannian geometry, which is of fundamental importance in both mathematics and physics.

25. Amalie Emmy Noether / NUR-ter (1882-1935) - Noether’s innovations in higher algebra gained her recognition as the most creative abstract algebraist of modern times. She is considered the greatest female mathematician in history.

26. Sophie Germain / so-FEE zhehr-MAN (1776-1831) - One of the earliest female mathematicians; corresponded with Gauss on math issues. She was an inspiration for women to pursue math as a career.  

 

1. Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) - Darwin developed the theory of evolution which is the fundamental explanation of how all living things evolved.

2. Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) - Pasteur discovered that germs cause disease, invents pasteurization and a rabies vaccine.

3. Hippocrates (c. 460-c. 377 B.C.E.) - Hippocrates is the father of western medicine.

4. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) - Aristotle was the first to use the scientific method in a systematic way to study the living world.  He pioneered the study of zoology, both observational and theoretical, in which his work was not surpassed until the 19th century. His work on the classification of animals by means of a scale ascending to man (without implying evolution) was not fully appreciated until the 19th century:  Darwin acknowledged a debt to him.

5. John Ray (1627-1705) - More than anybody else, he made the study of botany and zoology a scientific pursuit, bringing order and logic to the investigation of the living world out of the chaos that existed before.

6. Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) - Linnaeus is the founder of modern systematic botany and zoology.

7. Galen (c. 130-200) - For fifteen hundred years the main source of European physicians’ knowledge of the human body was the works of Galen. This classic source became a revered obstacle. Of all the ancient writers on science, except Aristotle and Ptolemy, none was more influential than Galen.

8. Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902) - Virchow was the founder of cellular pathology. His cellular hypothesis called the cell the fundamental unit of life and the ultimate irreducible form of every living element, and . . . from it emanate all the activities of life both in health and in sickness. His highly influential book, Cellular Pathology set forth the principles upon which medical research would be based for the next hundred years and more.

9. Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) - Leeuwenhoek was the first person to discover microorganisms in 1676 through a microscope he had made. He disproved the theory of spontaneous generation which had been a long held belief and obstacle to further advances in the living sciences.

10. Paracelsus, full name - Philippus Theophrastus Bobbastus von Hohenheim (1493-1541) - Paracelsus was a great pioneer of chemical medicine. He revolutionized the practice of medicine by encouraging observation, experiment, and research. His study of miners’ illnesses led to silicoses and tuberculosis being identified as occupational hazards. Many of his ideas later became standard medical practice.

11. Francis Harry Compton Crick (1916-2004) - Crick, along with James D. Watson and Maurice H. F. Wilkins discovered the molecular structure of deoxyribo nucleic acid (DNA) in 1953. DNA is one of the fundamental building blocks of all life forms and determines individual hereditary characteristics. Read Watson’s The Double Helix (130 pages), a simple easy-to-read text about the events leading up to his discovery of the structure of DNA.

12. Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) - Vesalius is the founder of modern anatomy.

 

13. Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884) - Mendel’s work had no influence at all on the development of biological science in the second half of the nineteenth century. But the rediscovery of the Mendelian laws of inheritance at the beginning of the twentieth century, combined with the identification of chromosomes, provided the keys to understanding how evolution works at the molecular level.

14. William Harvey (1578-1657) - In 1628 Harvey became the first person to accurately describe blood circulation (through the veins and arteries) and the heart as a pump. He guessed that the blood circulated back to the heart but without a microscope he could not see the capillaries which transported the blood back to the heart.

15. Avicenna (980-1037) - The great Islamic philosopher and physician wrote the Canon of Medicine which was widely influential in Europe for hundreds of years after his death.

16. Edward Jenner (1749-1823) - Jenner developed the smallpox vaccine which was the beginning of immunology.

17. Sir Alexander Fleming (1827-1912) - Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, a mold with key antibiotic properties, effective in treating many infections and diseases. Penicillin was the first antibiotic.

18. Frederick Gowland Hopkins (1861-1947) - In 1906 Hopkins discovered that food contains ingredients essential to life that are not proteins or carbohydrates, leading to the discovery of vitamins.

19. Rhazes or Razi (c. 845-930) - The Persian physician al-Razi prepared compilations that were influential in Western medicine for centuries. His monograph on smallpox and measles is still considered a medical classic.

20. Caraka (c. 300 B.C.E.) - Caraka was one of the principal contributors to the ancient art and science of Ayurveda, a system of medicine and lifestyle thought to be developed about 5,000 years ago in Ancient India.

21. Robert Hooke (1635-1703) - Hooke was the first person to use a microscope for science and the first to write a description of cells.

22. Li Shih-Chen (1518-1593) - Considered by many as the father of Chinese herbal medicine, Li Shih-chen was one of the most brilliant pharmacists of his day. His major contribution to medicine was his forty-year work, the Bencao Gangmu which describes 1,000 plants in detail, and included 11,000 prescriptions for herbal remedies.  (Bencao Gangmu - Wade-Giles: Pen-ts’ao Kang-mu), also known as Compendium of Materia Medica.)  The Bencao Gangmu is regarded as the most complete and comprehensive medical book ever written in the history of traditional Chinese medicine. His work has been translated into many different languages and remains the premier reference work for herbal medicine.

23. Robert Heinrich Hermann Koch (1843-1910) - Koch was the chief founder of modern bacteriology. He also isolated the causal agents of tuberculosis and cholera, two of the deadliest diseases in history.

24. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) - Freud is the most influential person in the field of modern psychological theory. He also started the field of psychoanalysis.

25. Imhotep (c. 2,650 B.C.E.) - Imhotep was the greatest ancient Egyptian physician.

26. Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) - Nightingale established sanitation standards and medical procedures that greatly reduced patient dath rates.

27. Joseph Lister (1827-1912) - Lister invented antiseptic techniques in surgery which greatly decreased the death rate from harmful bacteria.

28. Margaret Higgins Sanger (1883-1966) - Sanger was the founder of the American birth control movement. In 1916 she opened the first abortion clinic and started Planned Parenthood, an organization that helps people with their sexual and reproductive healthcare. Today, there are more than 860 Planned Parenthood clinics around the world.

29. Maurice Hilleman (1919-2005) - Hilleman developed with his team at Merck and Company eight of the fourteen vaccines that are routinely given to young children in the United States including those for measles, mumps, chickenpox, rubella, hepatitis A and B, and meningitis. The vaccines he developed may have saved more lives than any other scientist of the 20th century. These vaccines effectively banished many of the most disabling and deadly childhood diseases in the United States and the rest of the world.

30. Santiago Ramon Y Cajal (1843-1910) - Cajal was the founder of modern neuroscience. The fundamental concept is that the brain contains distinct nerve cells called neurons that communicate with one another.

31. Charles Best (1899-1978) - In 1921 Best became the first person to isolate insulin from the pancreas of a dog. By 1966 Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical company, had synthesized it in the lab and insulin became the first treatment for diabetes other than diet restriction. In the United States, nearly one in ten people over age twenty has diabetes; that is over 20 million people.

Summary:  This is very disappointing, nothing for early periods, before 1800, but a few excellent ones for the 1800s and after. I could find no commercial films with a story line available before 1800. Therefore, I included five films depicting events in 20th century African countries as well as three showing events in the 1800s. The ones covering the 1800s and the selection titled Africa, an nine-part series, give a sense of Africa’s ancient cultural heritage.

1. Shaka Zulu (c. 1810) 1983 {PG-13}

 

A British miniseries about the career of Shaka, king of the Zulus (Cele), birth c. 1787-1828. He became a renowned tribal chieftain creating a fighing force that devastated southern Africa. Shaka overcame the Ndwandue and the Qwabe clans, his two greatest foes in southern Africa, and subsequently the rest of Natal. A military genius, he reorganized the army, outfitting them with closed-quarter weapons, and introduced an innovative tactical strategy of extermination. Set in the early 19th century during British ascendancy in Africa, this film offers some key insights into comparative cultures. The first Europeans settled in present-day Durham, South Africa in 1824. 300m/C. GB Edward Fox, Robert Powell, Trevor Howard, Christopher Lee, Fiona Fullerton, Henry Cele; D:  William C. Faure. Facets Multimedia, Inc.

2. Amistad (1839) 1997 {R}

A great movie by Steven Spielberg that focuses on inhumane treatment. In 1839, aboard the slaveship Amistad, African captives led by a Mende tribesman named Cinque (Hounsou), free themselves during a bloody mutiny. Attorney Robert Baldwin (McConaughey) must prove in long court battles that the Africans were rightfully free individuals according to the law. In 1841, John Quincy Adams (Hopkins), the former President, presents the Africans’ defense to the Supreme Court against efforts of President Martin Van Buren’s administration to return them to their masters and to certain death. Adams wins their freedom. DVD is in English and in Mende with English subtitles. 152m/C. Djimon Hounsou, Anthony Hopkins, Matthew McConaughey, Morgan Freeman, Nigel Hawthorne, David Paymer, Pete Postlethwaite, Stellan Skarsgard, Anna Paquin, Tomas Milian; D:  Steven Spielberg; W:  David Franzoni; C:  Janusz Kaminski; M:  John Williams. Nominations:  Academy Awards ‘97:  Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design; Best Supporting Actor (Hopkins); Best Original Score. Universal Studios Home Video.

3. Mountains of the Moon (c. 1850s) 1990 {R}

Robust adventure detailing the last great challenge for mid-19th-century men of adventure–the search for the source of the Nile. Join famed Victorian rogue-explorer Sir Richard Burton (1821-1890) and cohort John Hanning Speke (1827-1864) as they search across totally uncharted and hostile land in the 1850s. Burton led two unsuccessful expeditions to discover the source of the White Nile in 1855 and 1857-58. Spectacular scenery and images. From William Harrison’s novel Burton and Speke. Burton was the first European to discover Lake Tanganyika (February, 1858) and penetrate forbidden Muslim cities (examples include Mecca disguised as a Muslim in 1853 and the East African city of Harar, Ethiopia in 1854). Speke was the first European to reach Lake Victoria in East Africa (July 30, 1858), which he correctly identified as a source of the Nile. 140m/C, Closed Captioned. Patrick Bergin, Iain Glen, Fiona Shaw, Richard E. Grant, Peter Vaughan, Robert Bees, Bernard Hill, Anna Massey, Leslie Phillips, John Savident, James Villiers, Delroy Lindo, Roshan Seth; D:  Bob Rafelson; W:  Bob Rafelson; C:  Roger Deakins. Artisan Entertainment.

4. Khartoum (1883-1885) 166 {PG}

A sweeping adventure epic detailing the last days of General “Chinese” Gordon (Heston) defending Khartoum, Sudan against Arab tribes led by Muhammed Ahmad (Olivier). Khartoum in the 1880s was the administrative capital of Egyptain-ruled Sudan. Gordon was sent by the British government to evacuate the European and Egyptian populations in the capital. According to Anthony Nutting’s 1966 book, Gordon of Khartoum:  Martyr and Misfit, the general never intended to obey these orders. 134m/C. Charlton Heston, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Richard Johnson, Alexander Knox, Hugh Williams, Nigel Green, Michael Hordern, Johnny Sekka; D:  Basil Dearden. MGM Home Entertainment; Cyclops Communication Corp.

5. Out of Africa (c. 1915) 1985 {PG}

A great film of the years spent by Danish authoress Isak Dinesen (her true name is Karen Blixen, 1885-1962) on a Kenyan coffee plantation. She moved to Africa in 1913 to marry, and later fell in love with Denys Finch-Hatten, a British adventurer. Based on several books, including biographies of the two lovers. 161m/C, Closed Captioned. Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Michael Kitchen, Malick Bowens, Michael Gough, Suzanna Hamilton, Rachel Kempson, Graham Crowden, Shane Rimmer, Donal McCann, Iman, Joseph Thiaka, Stephen Kinyanjui; D:  Synday Pollack; W:  Kurt Luedtke; C:  David Watkin; M:  John Barry. Academy Awards ‘85:  Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Cinematography, Best Director (Pollack), Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Original Score; Nominations:  Academy Awards ‘85:  Best Actress (Streep), Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Supporting Actor (Brandauer). Universal Studios Home Video; Baker & Taylor Video.

6. The Battle of Algiers (1954) 1966 {R} $$$

Riveting, powerful, award-winning film showing the Algerian revolt against oppressive French colonial rule in 1954. A then-innovative, documentary-style film which makes most political films seem ineffectual by comparison by using amateur actors, grainy photography, realistic violence, and a boldly propagandistic sense of social outrage. France took over Algeria in 1830 with independence not coming until 1962. In Italian. 123m/Black and White. AL IT Yacef Saadi, Jean Martin, Brahim Haggiag, Tommaso Neri, Samia Kerbash, Fawzia el Kader, Michele Kerbash, Mohamed Ben Kassen; D:  Gillo Pontecorvo; W:  Franco Solinas; M:  Ennio Morricone. Nominations:  Academy Awards ‘66:  Best Foreign Language Film; Academy Awards ‘68:  Best Director (Pontecorvo), Best Story & Screenplay. International Historic Films, Inc.; Tapeworm Video Distributors.

7. Black Jesus (1960s) 1968 {R}

An African leader, Lalubi (Strode) uses passive resistance to save his people from a dictatorial regime that is supported by European colonialism. When he’s betrayed by a follower, Lalubi is jailed and tortured, along with a thief who gains a greater understanding after contract with the leader. Film is a thinly disguised portrayal of Zaire and its history. 90m/C. IT Woody Strode, Jean Servais; D:  Valerio Zurlini. Ivy Film/Video.

8. Bopha! (1970s) 1993 {PG-13}

During the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa a father and son take different sides. In the Senior township, police officer Mikay is proud of his peaceful community, particularly in light of the growing unrest in the other townships. Son Zweli has become an activist and wife Rosie must be the family peacemaker. Then a prominent freedom movement member is arrested and two secret police officers make their sinister appearance. Excellent acting; directorial debut of Freeman. Adapted from the play by Percy Mtwa, although the hopeful ending has been changed in the movie. The title, a Zulu word, means arrest or detention. Filmed on location in Zimbabwe. 121m/C, Closed Captioned. Danny Glover, Mayard Eziashi, Alfre Woodard, Malcolm McDowell, Marius Weyers, Malick Bowens, Robin Smith, Michael Chinyamurindi, Christopher John Hall, Grace Mahlaba; D:  Morgan Freeman; W:  Brian Bird, John Wierick; M:  Makes Horner. Paramount.

        Educational

9. Africa (1990s), 2001 {G}, 9 Episode Series

Depicts life in contemporary Africa as National Geographic takes viewers across Africa’s major regions (11 countries) and into the homes of the people who live there. The nine-part series features particular Africans whose stories intertwine with the history, culture, religion, and art of their different regions. A magnificent series.

Episode 1:  Savanna Homecoming. A young mother and her son make a journey back to the countryside for the birth of her second child. Meanwhile, another mother must decide if the way of life she has left behind in the city is worth giving up for her difficult life in the African countryside. The Serengeti in Tanzania is spotlighted in this story.

Episode 2:  Desert Odyssey. A nine-year-old boy is initatied into manhood by testing his physical and intellectual strength in an arduous journey across the Sahara Desert. The customs and reasons for the caravan are highlighted in this story.

Episode 3:  Voices of the Forest. This part focuses on the primitive Baka people who live in the rain forest of Central Africa’s Congo River Basin. Their lives are completely dependent on a complex variety of plants and animals that surround them in the forest. Unfortunately the logging of its old-growth timber by outside interests could threaten Baka villages. The second intertwined segment describes a business that creates custom coffins from forest timber endangered by the logging company.

Episode 4:  Mountains of Faith. Traces the lives of two ambitious young men in Ethiopia; one is following a rigorous course of study in the hope of becoming a Christian priest like his father; the other toils in the capital as a shoeshine boy to make enough money for a time-honored celebration in his family’s rural village.

Episdoe 5:  Love in the Sahel. Near the edge of the desolate and wind-swept Sahara, two young men particiapte in age-old rituals guided by nature’s complex rhythms. The first segment focuses on a teen who takes his cattle to grazing lands in the Sahel to fatten them. He is gone eight months then hopefully returns to his village and his girlfriend with a fattened herd, proof of his eligibility for marriage. Meanwhile, among the Dogon people, each boy must participate in a rite of passage ceremony to become a man. The initiation only comes after a good harvest and the approval of the village’s eldest man.

Episode 6:  Restless Waters. On Lake Victoria, the continent’s largest lake, a man is about to risk his family’s savings for a chance at a better future. He gives up his life as a fisherman for that of a boat operator ferrying tourists to see chimps.

Episode 7:  Leopards of Zanzibar. On the sunny island of Zanzibar, off Africa’s eastern coast, an amateur soccer team has qualified to compete in a championship match on the mainland. But in a place still tied to the past, these men, who make their living from the sea, discover that keeping pace with modern changes can help them reach their goal.

Episode 8:  Southern Treasure. Since apartheid’s dramatic downfall in 1994, South Africans from all walks of life have embarked on a remarkable journey in search of a new future. Witness their efforts and challenges through the eyes of a young woman seeking a new career as the first woman mine manager, miners struggling in a changing industry, and indigenous peoples reclaiming a storied past.

Episode 9:  The Making of Africa. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the adventurous three-year effort behind the making of the epic series “Africa.” 540m/C, nine parts on 4 DVDs, each episode 1 hour. National Geographic.

10. Eternal Enemies:  Lions and Hyenas (1990s) 1992 {G}

 

Gripping footage of the intense and vicious blood feud between Botswana’s lions and spotted hyenas. 59m/C, Closed Captioned. National Geographic.

1. Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) - His four voyages (1492-1504) opened the way for European exploration, exploitation, and colonization of North and South America.

2. Hernan Cortes (1484-1547) - Cortes defeated the Aztec Empire (1519-1521) and imposed on the region of present-day Mexico the Spanish language, culture and religion that continues to the present.

3. Francisco Pizarro (c. 1475-1541) - In 1533 Pizarro destroyed the Inca Empire which had controlled present-day Peru and Ecuador, the northern half of Chile, and part of Bolivia. He established Spanish rule and founded the city of Lima, Peru in 1535. As a result of Pizarro’s conquest, the religion, language and culture of Spain were instilled on the whole region to this day.

4. Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) - Henry sponsored voyages of discovery from 1422 to 1434 to the Maderia Islands and along the western coast of Africa which initiated the great age of discovery and the European thrust towards world dominion.

 

5. Zheng He (c. 1371-1435) - Zheng He was the greatest Chinese explorer. Despite Zheng’s efforts that helped extend the Chinese maritime and commercial influence throughout the regions bordering the Indian Ocean, the Chinese Emperor Hung-hsi stopped further sea exploration. This had profound implications in that the Europeans eventually took control of much of the world in subsequent centuries.

6. Vasco da Gama (c. 1469-1524) - Following Bartolemeu Dias around the Cape of Good Hope, Da Gama’s voyages to India (first in 1498) opened the sea route from western Europe to the East and thus ushered in a new era in world history. He also helped make Portugal a world power.

7. Ibn Battutah (1304-1368/69) - The greatest medieval Arab traveler and the author of one of the most famous travel books whose documentary value gave it lasting historical and geographical significance.

8. Marco Polo (c. 1254-1324) - Polo was one of the first Europeans to reach China in 1275. His account of his experience in China (1274-1292) was widely read and established the image of China for Europeans for hundreds of years. Also, his book gave considerable impetus to the Europeans’ (including Christopher Columbus’) quest for the riches of the East (i.e. Asia). For centuries, Europe’s maps of the Far East were based on the information provided by Marco Polo.

9. Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480-1521) - Magellan discovered the Strait of Magellan and led the first circumnavigation of the world (1519-1521).

10. William Clark (1770-138) and Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) - Lewis and Clarks’ diaries of their overland trip (1804-1806) from St. Louis, Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia river on the Pacific coast helped dispel ignorance about the Louisania Territory and did much to open the way for westward settlement. Sacajawhea, a Shoshone Indian who, carrying her infant son on her back, saved the Lewis and Clark expedition from certain death.  

11. Barolemeu Dias (c. 1450-1500) - Dias led the first European expedition to round the Cape of Good Hope (1488); opening the sea route to asia via the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

12. James Cook (1728-1779) - From 1769-1779 Cook charted much of the North and South Pacific including New Zealand and parts of Australia. Overall, he peacefully changed the map of the world more than any other single man in history.

13. John Harrison (1693-1776) - Harrison invented the first practical marine chronometer (1735) which was very important for navigation in that it enabled navigators to compute accurately their longitude at sea.

14. David Livingstone (1813-1873) - In his 30 years (1842-1872) of travel and Christian missionary work in southern, central, and eastern Africa, he may have influenced Western attitudes toward Africa more than any other individual before or since.

15. Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997) - Cousteau designed the first aqualung in 1943 with Emile Gagnan and a process for using television underwater which opened a new period of underwater exploration. He wrote books and produced films on the oceans that people around the world read and watched. 

16. Sir Edmund Hillary (1920-2008) and Tensing Norgay (b. 1920) - Hillary and Norgay were the first people to reach the top of Mount Everest (1953), the highest mountain in the world (29,028 feet or 8,848 meters).

 

17. Neil Armstrong (b. 1930) - In 1969 Armstrong was the first man to set foot on Earth’s moon which represented a whole new level of exploration for mankind.  In addition, this singular achievement was the culmination of years of technological advances.

18. Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (1934-1968) - The first man to travel into space (1961) which opened a new era in mankind’s exploration of the universe.

19. Auguste Piccard (1884-1962) - In 1932, Auguste was the first to explore the upper stratosphere (about 55,000 feet) in an airtight cabin with pressurized air which he invented. With his son Jacques, the Piccards explored great ocean depths in a bathyscaphe. In 1960, Jacques and Don Walsh set the world record manned dive of 35,813 feet or 9,200 meters in the Mariana Trench of the Pacific Ocean.

 

20. Sacagawea (c. 1786-1812) - Lewis and Clarks’ diaries of their overland trip (1804-1806) helped dispel ignorance about the Louisiana Territory and did much to open the way for westward settlement. Sacagawea, a Shoshone Indian who, carrying her infant son on her back, saved the Lewis and Clark expedition from certain death.

21. Pedro Alvares Cabral (1460?-1525?) - One of the first Europeans to sail to India and the first Portuguese to sail to Brazil (1500). Cabral’s trip to Brazil opened the way for eventual Portuguese control such that Brazil has become the largest Portuguese speaking country in the world.

Summary:  There are not a lot available but enough to make a good list of six selections.

 1. Land of the Pharaohs (c. 2500 B.C.E.) 1955 {PG}

 

Grand spectacle (with 10,000 extras) about the building of Khufu, Egypt’s largest pyramid at Giza. For thirty years the Pharaoh Khufu (Hawkins) labored to finish his monumental tomb, while he also battled against his scheming wife, who wanted both his wealth and his kingdom. (For fans of Joan Collins, this is one of her earliest appearances.) King (pharaoh) Khufu (also spelled Khufwey or Khnom-Khufwey, in Greek Cheops), second king of the 4th dynasty, (c. 2613-c. 2494 B.C.E.), son of King Snefru and Queen Hetepheres. 106m/C, Closed Captioned. Jack Hawkins (pharaoh), Joan Collins (wife of the pharaoh), James Robertson Justice, Dewey Martin, Alexis Minotis, Sydney Chaplin. D: Howard Hawks. Warner Home Video, Inc.

2. The Egyptian (c. 1360 B.C.E.) 1954 {PG}

Based on the novel by Mika Waltari, this is a big-budget epic about a young Egyptian in Akhnaton’s (Ikhnaton) reign who becomes physician to the Pharaoh, ruler of ancient Egypt from c. 1372-1354 B.C.E.; son and successor of Amenhotep III. 140m/C, Closed Captioned. Edmund Purdom, Victor Mature, Peter Ustinov, Bella Darvi, Gene Tierney, Henry Daniell, Jean Simmons, Michael Wilding, Judith Evelyn, John Carradine, Carl Benton Reid; D: Michael Curtiz; W: Phillip Dunne, Casey Robinson; C: Leon Shamroy. Nominations:  Academy Award ‘54:  Best Color Cinematography. CBS/Fox Video; Image Entertainment.

*3. The Ten Commandments (c. 1300-1200 B.C.E.) 1956 {G}

Cecil B. DeMille’s remake of his 1923 silent classic (and his last film) is an extravagant Old Testament epic that tells the life story of Moses, who turned his back on a privileged life to lead his people to freedom outside of Egypt. Moses’s life is described from the time of his birth, his adoption into royalty, and his banishment to the desert. The film then depicts his anointment by God, the many trials endured by the Eyptian King Ramses and the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. Great cast, with Fraser Heston (son of Charlton) as the baby Moses. Parting of the Red Sea rivals any modern special effects. 219m/C. Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Yvonne De Carlo, Nina Foch, John Derek, H. B. Warner, Henry Wilcoxon, Judith Anderson, John Carradine, Douglass Dumbrille, Cedric Hardwicke, Martha Scott, Vincent Price, Debra Paget; D:  Cecil B. DeMille; C:  Loyal Griggs; M:  Elmer Bernstein. Academy Awards ‘56:  Best Special Effects; Nominations:  Academy Awards ‘56:  Best Art Direction/Set Decoration (Color), Best Color Cinematography, Best Costume Design (Color), Best Color Cinematography, Best Costume Design (Color), Best Film Editing, Best Picture, Best Sound. Paramount. 

4. Cleopatra (c. 40 B.C.E.) 1963 {PG-13}

Lavish production. The ambitious Egyptian queen, 69-30 B.C.E. (Taylor), uses her charms in hopes of conquering the world through marrying Julius Caesar, 100-44 B.C.E., Emperor of Rome (Harrison), and then after Caesar’s death, also through having an ill-fated romance with his general Mark Antony, 83?-30 B.C.E. (Burton). Expensive four-hour epic. 246m/C. Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Robby McKowall, Martin Mandau, Pamela Brown, Michael Hordern, Kenneth Haigh, Andrew Keir, Hme Cronyn, Carroll O. Connor; D:  Joseph L. Mankiewicz; W:  Joseph L. Mankiewicz; C:  Leon Shamroy M:  Alex North. Academy Awards ‘63:  Best Art Direction/Set Decoration (Color), Best Color Cinematography, Best Costume Design (Color), Best Visual Effects; Nominations:  Academy Award ‘63:  Best Actor (Harrison), Best Film Editing, Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Original Score. CBS/Fox Video.

Educational

5. Egypt:  Quest for Eternity (c. 2500 B.C.E.) 1982 {G}

Cross the Nile to the Land of the Dead (near ancient Memphis) and enter the elaborately decorated tombs where the kings and queens are buried. Egyptologists explain and interpret the riddles of Egypt’s intiguing past. There are numerous pyramids located throughout Egypt, but the best known lie along a 50-mile stretch of the Nile Valley west of the river near ancient Memphis and date from the Old Kingdom (c. 2686-c. 2160 B.C.E.). The three great pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure at Giza are the most famous. 59m/C, Closed Captioned. National Geographic.

6. Pyramid (c. 2500 B.C.E.) 1988 {G}

Investigate with David Macaulay the history, archaeology, mythology and religion of ancient Egypt when monarchs built pyramids with secret chambers to preserve their mummified bodies for eternity. The video focuses on King Khufu’s tomb, the largest pyramid in the world, 40 stories tall covering 13 acres. The most significant teaching value of this video is the animated story sequences about building a great pyramid. 60m/C, Closed Captioned. PBS Home Video; Turner Home Entertainment Company.

(* The star symbol means the film(s) are the best overall for the civilization) 

(Underlined selections in VHS video format only)

Chapter 1 - Ancient Egypt

1. Land of the Pharaohs

2. The Egyptian

*3. The Ten Commandments

4. Cleopatra

5. Egypt:  Quest for Eternity

6. Pyramid

Chapter 2 - Africa

*1. Shaka Zulu

2. Amistad

3. Mountains of the Moon

4. Khartoum

5. Out of Africa

6. The Battle of Algiers

7. Black Jesus

8. Bopha!

*9. Africa (8 Episode Series)

10. Eternal Enemies:  Lions and Hyenas

Chapter 3 - India

*1. Little Buddha

2. A Passage To India

*3. Gandhi

4. Kundun

5. The Mahabharata

6. Ancient India:  A Journey Back in Time

7. Great Indian Railway

Chapter 4 - China

1. Little Buddha

2. Mongol

3. The Adventures of Marco Polo

4. The Keys of the Kingdom

*5. The Good Earth

*6. The Last Emperor

7. Kundun

8. Ancient China:  A Journey Back in Time

Chapter 5 - Hebrews / Israelites / Christians

1. The Story of Jacob and Joseph

*2. The Ten Commandments

3. David (part of a 6 Episode series)

4. David and Bathsheba

5. The Gospel According To St. Matthew

6. The King of Kings

7. The Last Temptation of Christ

*8. The Greatest Story Ever Told

9. Jesus of Nazareth

10. Ben Hur

11. Barabbas

12. Quo Vadis

13. Masada

14. Jerusalem:  Within These Walls

*15. Heritage:  Civilization and the Jews (9 Episode Series)

Chapter 6 - North American Indians

*1. Cabeza De Vaca

2. Pocahontas:  The Legend

3. The Black Robe

4. The Last of the Mohicans

5. A Man Called Horse

6. Dances With Wolves

7. 500 Nations (8 Episode Series)

8. Ishi:  The Last Yahi

Chapter 7 - Inca / Maya / Aztec

*1. The Other Conquest

2. Apocalypto

3. Aguirre, the Wrath of God

4. Lost Kingdoms of the Maya

5. Lost Treasures of the Ancient World:  Mayans & Aztecs

6. Secrets of Lost Empires - Inca

Chapter 8 - Greece / Macedonians

*1. Alexander the Great

*2. Jason and the Argonauts

*3. Troy

4. Helen of Troy

5. Clash of the Titans

6. Ulysses

*7. The Odyssey

Chapter 9 - Roman Empire

1. Spartacus

2. Julius Caesar

*3. Ben Hur

4. Barabbas

5. Quo Vadis

6. Masada

*7. The Fall of the Roman Empire

8. Roman City

9. Hail Caesar - The Men Who Shaped An Empire (6 Episode Series)

10. I, Claudius (13 Episode Series)

Chapter 10 - Persian Empire

1. Alexander the Great

*2. The Keeper:  The Legend of Omar Khayyam

*3. Arabian Nights

4. Golden Voyage of Sinbad

5. The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad

6. Kismet

7. The Thief of Baghdad

Chapter 11 - Byzantine Empire

*1. Byzantium:  The Lost Empire

Chapter 12 - Japan

1. Rashomen

*2. Ran

3. Seven Samurai

4. Rikyu

5. The Samurai Trilogy

6. Shogun

7. Living Treasures of Japan 

Chapter 13 - Islamic Empire

*1. The Message

2. El Cid

3. Destiny

4. Kingdom of Heaven

5. Lawrence of Arabia

*6. Islam:  Empire of Faith (3 Episode Series)

7. Splendors of the Ottoman Sultans:  The Museum Tour

Chapter 14 - Europe

1. Kingdom of Heaven

2. The Vikings

3. El Cid

4. Christopher Columbus

*5. The Lion in Winter

6. Becket

7. Braveheart

8. Henry V

9. Anne of the Thousand Days / Mary Queen of Scots (2 movie set)

10. Elizabeth

11. Cromwell

12. The Madness of King George

13. The Agony and the Ecstasy

14. The Rise of Louis XIV

15. Dangerous Liaisons

16. Amadeus

*17. Napoleon

18. Beowulf and Grendel

19. Excalibur

20. Camelot

21. Faust

22. Siegfried

23. Ivanhoe

24. Don Quixote

25. Castle

26. Cathedral

27. The Vikings (2 Episode Series)

Chapter 15 - Mongol Empire

*1. Mongol

2. The Adventures of Marco Polo

Chapter 16 - Ottoman Empire

*1. Islam:  Empire of Faith (3 Episode Series)

2. Splendors of the Ottoman Sultans:  The Museum Tour

Chapter 17 - Russia

1. Alexander Nevsky

2. Andrei Rublev

*3. Ivan the Terrible, Part One

*4. Ivan the Terrible, Part Two

5. Peter the Great

*6. Catherine the Great

7. War and Peace

8. Nicholas and Alexander

9. Doctor Zhivago

10. Reds

11. October (Ten Days the Shook the World - 1917)

12. The Brothers Karamazov

13. Fiddler on the Roof

Chapter 18 - Multiple Civilizations

1. Around the World in 80 Days

*2. Civilisation (13 Episode Series)

3. Heritage:  Civilization and the Jews (9 Episode Series)