Bragg's selection is well thoughtout and argued

Route One it was not.What changed the world was the idea o a common set o sporting laws, uni ying a game that existed in countless ariants and enabling it to begin its conquest o the world. To anyone who only knows the modern game, they are ba ling, a witness to the shared heritage o the two British ootball codes. Oh, and the rules o ootball.It is hard to make a case or the Laws, in their original 1863 ersion, as world-changing in themsel es. One book o theoretical science and mathematics (Newton), one o practical physics (Maxwell on electricity), one o biology (Darwin's Origin o Species; two works o ast political consequence (Magna Carta and Wilber orce's speech against the sla e trade); two books o social import, with a eminist slant (Mary Wollstonecra t's indication o the Rights o Women and, less predictably, Marie Stopes's Married Lo e); one each o economics (The Wealth o Nations) and industry (Arkwright); and - as on Desert Island Discs - the Bible (King James ersion) and Shakespeare ( irst olio). By broadening his scope to include The Laws o Association ootball and Arkwright's patent or his spinning machine he has opened the way or all manner o appealing ootage to illustrate the consequences o those short pieces o technical prose.Bragg's selection is well thought-out and argued.

But there's another explanation or Bragg's bending o his own rules This book is a companion to a tele ision series. While T lo es list shows - see Channel 4 or details - ideas are always a hard sell; and ideas without mo ing pictures are radio. Newton's theories came e ery bit as much out o thin air as any o Goethe's lines."Science, politics and sport ha e not always ad anced through books: so the de inition o a "book" must gi e way. "I can see no distinction between Newton thinking on the consequences o the all o an apple and Homer thinking on the consequences o the taking o Helen or Shakespeare thinking out the consequences o the witches prophesying to Macbeth...

Bragg's uni ying zeal is quite explicit, as he makes clear in his chapter on Newton's Principia Mathematica (a book, though not one you'd want to read on the beach). There are a number o reasons why this sleight o hand may ha e pro ed necessary. While many books change indi iduals' li es, books that change the world are rarer, and Bragg has made things more di icult or himsel by restricting his choices to books by British authors. Secondly, there's a strong suspicion that what really interests Bragg are ideas, in entions and social change, as part o his continuing, and laudable, mission to broaden our sense o cultural heritage. The problem with Mel yn Bragg's 12 books is that many o them are not books at all. There's a speech, a patent, a legal agreement and, most surprisingly o all, the rules or a sport.