One of my college text books on Electromagnetism with the heavy calculus and derivations of Maxwell's Equations to either Leonhard Euler or Isaac Newton, one of the extremely few people in the 17th century that would be able to understand the math and use the math to actually generate electricity.
Please reconsider avoiding Newton if you are offered the opportunity to send a book back in time. He was a narcissistic dick who used his influence to fuck over other academics (Leibniz, Hooke), and plagiarized and stole the work of others without crediting them (Flamsteed).
We're in the timeline where he was stopped and had to kill himself, not sure I really want to give him any pointers about how to further his agenda but slightly differently and avoiding some tactical mistakes. I don't think he's going to take from the book that his world view was wrong or that for the good of Germany he should abandon his goals.
That book would inform him that if he starts a war to expand Germany, the actual result will be to make Germany a lot smaller, divided into a liberal and a communist state (until the communist one gets absorbed into the liberal one), and him remembered as possibly the worst person to have ever lived.
Pretty sure he'd only wonder what he did "wrong" during his years in charge, if the book doesn't dive into that detail, and try something different. He'd probably feel even more infatuated with his idea of "glorious aryan german nationalism" if the book mentions, even by passing, that the werhmacht quickly beat France into submission.
Hitler was egomaniacal I don't think he would have a change of heart, but instead use any information too alter the outcome.
But if you're going to send a book to one of the worst people in history it's gotta be one of the worst books in history. Just gotta find the right age to send him The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss. I need AI to get to the next level so I can see how this might play out.
I see 3 outcomes, in order of least to most in likelihood and excitement:
Julius see's the error in his ways and establishes what essentially is an entirely new politcal system that is so good and just that It would stand today.
Same scenario as above except his grandson grows up to one day claim his rule and reverses everything.
He is killed, and for the exact same reasons as current lore. Either because his arrogance causes him to deny what will happen, or because regardless of any attempt to avoid such an outcome those who sought the power he had would still seek out that same power. Both lessons are fairly important but I think the latter one is often missed in the countless retellings. Power both corrupts and it's one sexy hot bitch.
From what I can tell, the "tyranny" that Caesar was killed for was because he wasn't for the Roman ownership class and was using his power to counteract the huge wealth disparities that existed at the end of the Roman Republic.
If FDR had reacted to that like he should have, the course of history might be pretty different. For one thing, the Bushes might have never gained the power they did.
Side question, but would ancient Romans be able to decipher a modern day language from one book? I'd imagine a language with Latin based words might be easy enough but not sure how equipped they were.
Depends on which modern language we're talking. If it's italian or romenian, they'd likely manage to work that "filthy" latin into "proper" latin. Greek might also work. Portuguese, spanish and french would require a LOT of work with native speakers and I suspect german and english would completely fail, "Why in Jupiter's dangling balls these barbarians keep changing the sound of the fucking vowels????"
Is romenian Italian with a Rome accent? Or do you mean Romanian? Cause if so, it's just as far from latin as French or Spanish. Greek would actually be the best modern language to send back in time, I think. Modern Greeks have issues understanding ancient Greek, but the reverse wouldn't be true, apparently.
He couldn't get himself to read a note an eavesdropper to the conspirators gave him trying to warn him about the attack, I sadly doubt he'd read a whole prophetic book.
Quite like to send the Complete Works of William Shakespeare back to the guy himself. Seeing he's already written it that would free him up to write a whole bunch more.
Would be cool to do the same thing with certain scientists.
A science book and a noteworthy thinker. But probably not terribly far back. It's not like knowledge of electricity would go terribly far before other technologies (manufacturing, for sure) were ready to enable it to flourish.
I like to imagine giving a big World Atlas of some sort to any seafaring culture around 500AD would result in interesting consequences, possibly with it becoming a real treasure. Maps are like pictures and valuable even if the places' names can't be understood
I'd love to send Einstein's Theory of General Relativity to Newton. Or maybe a whole textbook on modern physics but that would probably not be deep enough for him. But I'd really love to see what he could have done with modern physics.
Some people are just one hit wonders, so it could be für nothing. But it would be worth a try.
It's definitively better than to give the idea of nuclear fission to Henry Cavendish in 1766. Right now we live in the sweet spot between discovery and... broad practical application.
The complete history of the stock market. I'd send it to me for my 21st birthday. With a certain letter proving it was me from the future. With the last chapter being the history of bitcoin.
I wonder how long it would take to start diverging. There's a maximum volume of trades you can make before you start having an impact on the prices yourself. Knowing the future perfectly means eventually you would be the most dominant force on the market unless you tempered yourself. But having a book is just having a snapshot of a single reality that your reality will start diverging from.
The show The Travelers addresses this a bit, but I think even that one underestimates how much a new player will full knowledge of the future market would affect that future market.
It would be cool if they did that second series the finale teased, though they'll need to come up with some new twists. Though tbh, I'd watch a new take on the old ideas, too.