Melvyn Bragg will host a series on UK television discussing 12 books that changed the world. The books are:
Darwin - The Origin of Species (1859)
The First Rule Book of the Football Association (1863)
William Shakespeare's First Folio (1623)
Newton - Principia Mathematica (1687)
Adam Smith - The Wealth of Nations (1776)
William Wilberforce - Speech to the House of Commons (May 12 1789)
The King James Bible (1611)
Patent Specification for Arkwright's Spinning Machine (1769)
Mary Wollstonecraft - A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
Michael Faraday - Experimental Research in Electricity (1855)
Marie Stopes - Married Love (1918)
Magna Carta (1215)
Magna Carta is a "book"?
Perhaps the Federalist Papers would be a better choice. Or Locke's Two Treatises.
Posted by: KipEsquire | September 09, 2005 at 07:36 AM
I take your point, since Magna Carta is more truly a "document" than a "book" (as the Declaration of Independence would be a document rather than a book; although our tendency to think of the Constitution similarly as a document is belied by the copies in codex form many of us carry with us). Clearly, the BBC and Bragg are understanding "book" broadly.
Posted by: Finocchio | September 10, 2005 at 11:33 PM