The 100

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The 100

The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History is a 1978 book by Michael H. Hart

Michael H. Hart

Michael H. Hart is an astrophysicist who has also written three books on history and controversial articles on a variety of subjects.Hart, a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science who enlisted in the U.S....
. It is a ranking of the 100 people who most influenced human history. Since publication, the book has been hotly debated and its concept widely copied.

The book was reprinted in 1992 with several notable revisions made to the original list of 100 people and their associated rankings.

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The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History is a 1978 book by Michael H. Hart

Michael H. Hart

Communism

Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarianism, classlessness, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general....
, such as Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin , born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov and also known by the pseudonyms V.I. Lenin and N. Lenin, was a Russians revolutionary, a Bolshevik Communism politician, the principal leader of the October Revolution and the first head of the USSR....
and Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong was a China military and politics dictator. Mao led the Communist Party of China to victory against the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War, and was the leader of the People?s Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976....
, and the introduction of Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a Russian politician. He was the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and also the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991....
. Hart took sides in the Shakespearean authorship

Shakespearean authorship

The Shakespeare authorship question is the ongoing debate, first recorded in the early 18th century, about whether the works attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon were actually written by another writer, or a group of writers....
issue and substituted Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford was an Elizabethan era courtier, playwright, poet, sportsman, patron of numerous writers, and sponsor of at least two acting companies, Oxford's Men and Oxford's Boys, and a company of musicians....
for William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English people poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist....
. Hart also substituted Niels Bohr

Niels Bohr

Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Denmark physicist who made fundamental contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922....
and Henri Becquerel

Henri Becquerel

Antoine Henri Becquerel was a France physicist, Nobel laureate, and one of the discoverers of radioactivity. He won the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering radioactivity....
with Ernest Rutherford

Ernest Rutherford

Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, Order of Merit , Royal Society was a New Zealand-born British chemist who became known as the father of nuclear physics....
, thus correcting an error in the first edition. Henry Ford

Henry Ford

Henry Ford was the United States founder of the Ford Motor Company and father of modern assembly lines used in mass production. His introduction of the Model T History of the automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry....
was also promoted from the "Honorary Mentions" list, replacing Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Diego Jos? Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Mar?a de los Remedios Cipriano de la Sant?sima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso was a Spanish people Painting, drawing, and Sculpture....
. Finally, some of the rankings were re-ordered, although no one listed in the top ten changed position.

What mainly surprised readers was the first person on Hart's list. Hart decided to choose Muhammad

Muhammad

Muhammad Patronymic#Arabic Abd Allah ibn Abd al Muttalib , is the founder of the Major religious groups of Islam and is regarded by Muslims as a Rasul and prophet of , the last and the greatest law-bearer in a series of prophets....
over Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ, is the central figure of Christianity and is revered by most Christian churches as the Son of God and the Incarnation ....
or Moses

Moses

Moses is a Hebrew Bible Hebrews religious leader, lawgiver, prophet, to whom the Mosaic authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbeinu in Hebrew , he is the most important prophet in Judaism, and also an important prophet of Christianity, Islam, the Bah?'? Faith, Rastafari movement, Chrislam and many ot...
despite the fact that Islam

Islam

Islam is a Monotheism, Abrahamic religion originating with the teachings of the Prophets of Islam Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure....
was not the largest religion at the time of writing. Hart attributes this to the fact that Muhammad was successful in both the religious and political realms. He also writes that Muhammad's role in the development of Islam is far more influential than Jesus's collaboration in the development of Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
. He attributes the development of Christianity to St. Paul, who played a pivotal role in the dissemination of Christianity.

In addition, Hart wrote a 'sequel' in 1999, entitled A View from the Year 3000, in which he writes from the perspective of a person from that year ranking the most influential people in history. Roughly half of those entries are fictitious people from 2000–3000, but roughly half are actual people, most of whom are taken from the 1992 edition, though many have been reranked in order.

Hart's Top 10 (from the 1992 edition)

Rank	Name	Influence
1	Muhammad Muhammad Muhammad Patronymic#Arabic Abd Allah ibn Abd al Muttalib , is the founder of the Major religious groups of Islam and is regarded by Muslims as a Rasul and prophet of , the last and the greatest law-bearer in a series of prophets.... (570 570 Sorry, no overview for this topic –632 632 Events... )	The central human figure of Islam, regarded by Muslims as the messenger and last prophet of God. Also active as a diplomat, merchant, philosopher, orator, legislator, reformer, and military leader.
2	Isaac Newton Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton, Fellow of the Royal Society was an English people physicist, mathematician, Astronomy, Natural philosophy, Alchemy, and Theology and one of the the 100 in human history.... (1643–1727)	English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian. His law of universal gravitation and three laws of motion laid the groundwork for classical mechanics.
3	Jesus Christ (7–2 BC – 26–36 AD)	The central figure of Christianity, revered by most Christian churches as the Son of God and the incarnation of God. Also regarded as a major prophet in the religion of Islam.
4	Buddha Gautama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama was a Spirituality teacher in the northern region of the Indian subcontinent who founded Buddhism. He is generally seen by Buddhists as the Supreme Buddhahood of our age.... (563 BC–483 BC)	Spiritual teacher and philosopher. Founder of Buddhism.
5	Confucius Confucius This articles talks about a Chinese thinker and social philosopher. For a food company in China with its brand name "Master Kong", please refer to Tingyi Holding Corporation.... (551 BC–479 BC)	Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese thought and life.
6	St. Paul (5 5 Year 5 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.... –67 67 Year 67 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.... )	One of the most notable of early Christian missionaries.
7	Ts'ai Lun Cai Lun Cai Lun , courtesy name Jingzhong , was a China eunuch, who is conventionally regarded as the inventor of paper and the papermaking process, in forms recognizable in modern times as paper .... (50 50 Year 50 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar.... –121 121 Events... )	Widely regarded as the inventor of paper and the papermaking process.
8	Johannes Gutenberg Johannes Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg was a Germany goldsmith and printer who is credited with being the first European to use movable type printing, in around 1439, and the global inventor of the mechanical printing press.... (1398–1468)	German printer who invented the mechanical printing press.
9	Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus was a Republic of Genoa navigator, colonialist and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean?funded by Queen Isabella of Spain?led to general European awareness of the America in the Western Hemisphere.... (1451–1506)	Italian navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages led to general European awareness of the American continents.
10	Albert Einstein Albert Einstein Albert Einstein was a Germany-born theoretical physics. He is best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass?energy equivalence, expressed by the equation E = mc2.... (1879–1955)	German Theoretical physicist, best known for his theory of relativity and specifically mass–energy equivalence, expressed by the equation E = mc².

The 100

Hart's Top 10 (from the 1992 edition)

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