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How We Got to Now

How We Got to Now

Six Innovations that Made the Modern World

Summary

From Steven Johnson, the bestselling author of Where Good Ideas Come From, comes How We Got to Now, the companion book to his six-part BBC One television series exploring the power and the legacy of great ideas.

How did photography bring about social reform? What connects refrigeration to Hollywood? And how did our battle against dirt help create smartphones? In this story of ingenious breakthroughs and unsung heroes, Steven Johnson explores the essential innovations that changed the world and how we live in it.

'A new Steven Johnson book is something not to be missed. The author has become the leading writer on how inventions happen' Daniel Finkelstein, The Times, Books of the Year

'Graceful and compelling ... you'll find yourself exhilarated' The New York Times Book Review

'Readable, entertaining, and a challenge to any jaded sensibility that has become inured to the everyday miracles all around us' Peter Forbes, Guardian'This nimble history of invention . . .is a many-layered delight' Nature

About the author

Steven Johnson

Steven Johnson is the US bestselling author of Where Good Ideas Come From, Future Perfect, The Invention of Air, The Ghost Map, and Everything Bad Is Good for You. He is the founder of a variety of influential websites and has written for Time, Wired, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
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