31 Inventions That Built Our World
31 Inventions That Built Our World
For over 10,000 years, we humans have been busy altering our environment and embracing 'progress', evolving seamlessly from hunter gatherers to the modern urban sophisticates we see ourselves as today.
But what are the ideas and inventions that enabled humanity to become, by the early 21st century, a majority urban species for the first time? How did the essential infrastructure of modern life - the innovations that we barely even notice, but without which our world would fall apart - actually come to be?
With his characteristic wit and boundless curiosity, Jonn Elledge invites us to join him on a fascinating and often surprising tour of the ideas and technologies that made modernity possible. From elevators to electric lighting, parks to pedestrian crossings, he guides us through the history of civilisation itself.
Reviews
A meticulous, field-grounded account of how the architecture of global peace is fracturing — quietly, simultaneously, and in more places than most citizens care to know … a work of genuine consequence
Charming and outstandingly nerdish
A smart, funny, and endlessly fascinating book. Elledge has a wonderful ability to take something seemingly mundane and, with great charm, use it to transform the way you see the wider world.
Would you like to learn some supremely nerdy facts about the history of tram, canal, rail and power networks? Door numbering systems? Windows and doors, sewers and shopping? Lifts and escalators? Go on, of course you do. Jonn has emptied his extraordinary brain and created a magnificent, unobvious tour through the underappreciated systems which form the backdrop to our lives.
As warm, witty and erudite as the late, great, Douglas Adams.
Fantastic stuff! Jonn has a real gift for making the stories of everyday objects thrilling and unputdownable.
Far funnier than any book about infrastructure has any right to be.
Massively entertaining … Equal parts history, science and farce – but never dull
Fascinating and funny – it’ll have you geeking out over the most everyday things!
Jonn Elledge brings an infectious enthusiasm and a joie de vivre to this masterly story of the building blocks of modern life. I loved it. Read this book to truly understand the world around you, building by building, street by street, city by city.
I just love this book - completely fascinating and totally charming. Jonn Elledge breathes life into history and rekindles the utter magic of everyday things.
Jonn Elledge is a natural raconteur with encyclopaedic knowledge at his fingertips. 31 Inventions that Built our World is a new kind of history book for the modern age.
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