How We Got To Now Six Innovations HARDCOVER

How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World is an illustrated history by Steven Johnson. This edition is a hardback.

Key details

• Author: Steven Johnson
• Format: hardback
• Illustrated history
• Explores six innovations that shaped the modern world
• Accompanied by a major six-part television series on PBS

Synopsis

Steven Johnson traces facets of modern life over centuries, following innovations such as refrigeration, clocks and eyeglass lenses from their origins with hobbyists, amateurs and entrepreneurs through to unintended historical consequences. The book includes stories of accidental genius and notable missteps, including a French publisher who devised a phonograph before Edison but omitted playback, and a Hollywood movie star linked to technology behind Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

In his trademark style, Johnson draws connections between fields that appear unrelated, from air-conditioning and large-scale migration to cities such as Dubai and Phoenix, to pendulum clocks and the industrial revolution, and from clean water to the manufacture of computer chips. It presents a view of collaborative networks that helped build the modern world.