The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History is a 1978 book by Michel H. Hart, an astrophysicist, alien life researcher and white separatist.Published by his father’s publishing house, it was his first book and was reprinted in 1992 with revisions.
It is a ranking of the 100 people who, according to Hart, most influenced human history.Unlike various other rankings at the time, Hart explicitly wasn’t attempting to rank on “greatness” as a criterion, but rather how the course of human history most changed due to the actions of that person.
The book consists of 100 entries as well as an appendix of Honorable Mentions. Each entry is a short biography of the person, followed by Hart’s thoughts on how this person was influential and changed the course of human history. He gave additional credit for importance for people whose actions Hart felt were unusual, unlikely, or ahead of their time compared to a hypothesized course of history had this person not lived.
Founders and shapers of successful religions thus figured among the most influential in Hart’s view, as these shaped many people’s lives quite strongly over a long period of time. The first person on Hart’s list is the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Hart asserted that Muhammad was “supremely successful” in both the religious and secular realms, being responsible for both the foundations of Islam as well as the Early Muslim conquests uniting the Arabian Peninsula and eventually a wider caliphate after his death. Hart also believed that Muhammad played an unusually singular and personal role in the development of Islam.
The development of Christianity, by contrast, has its influence split between Jesus’s initial teachings and foundational work, and Paul the Apostle, who played a pivotal role in the early spread of Christianity as well as distinguishing its doctrines and practices from Judaism and the other Greek and Roman religions of the time period.Buddha, Confucius, and Moses all placed highly as well due to their role in establishing religions.
