The history of invention is the history of civilization.
The very great names we use to describe the great epochs of the past - the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age - tell us that invention is the essence of civilization. Today, we stand on the shoulders of a thousand generations of inventors. This book is their story.
From the first crude stone axe heads to the latest advances in communication technology. A History of Invention tells how each technological innovation met a critical need while creating the demand and the opportunity for the next breakthrough. Literally thousands of inventions are chronicled, explained and placed in their historical, cultural and scientific context in this vivid and comprehensive account of the epic march of technology.
 
The geographical scope of A History of Invention is as broad as its historical coverage is deep. Included are the contributions made by Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece - the great civilizations of the ancient world - whose inventions, such as the alphabet, the chariot, the arch and the aqueduct, made the progress of later eras possible. The Far Fast produced many of the inventions that laid the foundations of modern technology: gunpowder, irrigation systems and the printing press. The achievements of Western Europe, cradle of the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution, are surveyed in depth.
A History of Invention proves that technological innovation has not been the monopoly of any one culture but the product of the interplay of them all and shows us how inventions have revolutionized the way artists, craftsmen, philosophers and even theologians have seen and explained the world in which we live