How We Got To Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World - Hardcover

Johnson, Steven

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0425287785 ISBN 13: 9780425287781

Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers, 2018

Synopsis

Innovation starts with a problem whose solution sets in motion all kinds of unexpected discoveries. That’s why you can draw a line from pendulums to punching the clock at a factory, from ice blocks to summer movie blockbusters, from clean water to computer chips. In the lively storytelling style that has made him a popular, bestselling author, Steven Johnson looks at how accidental genius, brilliant mistakes, and unintended consequences shape the way we live in the modern world. Johnson’s “long zoom” approach connects history, geography, politics, and scientific advances with the deep curiousity of inventors or quirky interests of tinkerers to show how innovation truly comes about. His fascinating account is organised into six topics: glass, cold, sound, clean, time, light. Johnson’s fresh exploration of these simple, single-syllable word concepts creates an endlessly absorbing story that moves from lightning strikes in the prehistoric desert to the herculean effort to literally raise up the city of Chicago to laser labs straight out of a sci-fi movie. In other words, it’s the story of how we got to now!

About this title

About the Author

Steven Johnson is the bestselling author of eleven books, including Where Good Ideas Come From, Wonderland, and The Ghost Map. He's the host and co-creator of the Emmy-winning PBS/BBC series How We Got To Now, and the host of the podcast American Innovations. He lives in Brooklyn and Marin County, California with his wife and three sons.

Edition details

• Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0425287785
• ISBN 13: 9780425287781
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160