Non-Railway: Books which have changed your perceptions...

[AndrewE]

Some books that I have read have turned my world view upside-down... Some of the stuff we were taught at school - or have since absorbed via the media - turns out to be complete fabrication, other ideas are just a total revelation - and are then so obvious you can't understand why they aren't common knowledge!

In no particular order I offer "10% Human," by Alanna Collen (see https://cheslive.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=503770) about how the micro-organisms on and inside us are essential to our health and wellbeing, even affecting mental health.

Another is 1421: The Year China Discovered the World by Gavin Menzies. (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Menzies) Together with the later 1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance. Both are completely unarguable, and a big lump of both is the documentation of all the sources. It seems to me that the people who "have rejected Menzies' theories and assertions[4][5][6][7][8]: 367–372  and have categorised his work as pseudohistory" (to quote Wikipedia) are deluding themselves. I like the quote in the Wikipedia page "He is a very English eccentric and people like him often hit on truths."

Has anyone else read these books and had the same reaction, or felt the same after reading other books?

 

[Magdalia]

Some books that I have read have turned my world view upside-down

In my lifetime the world has been turned upside down. These are the books that have most helped me to get a better view of the most important changes. Note that they were all first published within a few years.

The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2007) "The impact of the highly improbable"
When China Rules the World by Martin Jacques (2009) "The end of the western world and the birth of a new global order"
Debt the first 5000 years by David Graeber (2011) "An alternate history of the rise of money and markets"
Reality is Broken by Jane McGonical (2011) "Why games make us better and how they can change the world"