From Michael Hart's controversial book, "The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History" (1992 Ed.) here is a sampling ... 1. Muhammad 2. Isaac Newton 3. Jesus Christ 4. Buddha 5. Confucius 9. Christopher Columbus 10. Albert Einstein 11. Louis Pasteur 12. Galileo Galilei 16. Charles Darwin 19. Nicolaus Copernicus 22. James Watt 25. Martin Luther 26. George Washington 27. Karl Marx 28. Orville and Wilbur Wright 29. Genghis Khan 33. Alexander the Great 34. Napoleon Bonaparte 35. Thomas Edison 39. Adolf Hitler 45. Ludwig van Beethoven 69. Sigmund Freud 72. Johann Sebastian Bach 81. John F. Kennedy 89. Mao Zedong 97. Charlemagne There's something about this list that appeals to me as a game designer, always facing the task of rating leaders. Of course, we are never required to make such fine gradations. But what I really found interesting was the ranking of our boy so high up the list. I have often wondered what significance the study of Napoleon has for the 21st century. Napoleon's appearance on one list proves nothing, but it does provide food for thought. I hope you are not surprised that Hart's argument for inclusion is based not on his generalship but on the major reforms he instituted in the administration of France, and in particular, the creation of the French civil code: "On the whole the code was moderate, well organized, and written with commendable brevity and outstanding lucidity. As a result, the code has not only endured in France (the French civil code today is strikingly similar to the original Code Napoleon) but has been adopted, with local modifications, in many other countries." (pp. 183-84) Back to OSG News March 2000 Table of Contents Back to OSG News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Operational Studies Group. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com