Authoritative, compelling, and provocative, Ideas That Changed the World presents the big themes in philosophy and history, and reveals how certain...
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Feb 04, 2011
The Reading Countess
rated it: 
A comprehensive look at all things innovative, Ideas That Changed the World will surely be a popular read with middle graders. From zippers to microwaves, electric cars to x-rays; this book has them all. My son will undoubtedly enjoy the video games pages, but I, myself, liked learning about early cement. It seems we have those crafty Romans to thank for the sturdiness of everyday objects. Mixing volcano ash with such things as blood, milk and horsehair to change the consistency, they introduced
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May 04, 2008
Tom
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Had it for 5 years, finally read it. Fascinating, wide-ranging, lots of illustrations - but not much new or surprising. The author's basic theses - that historical change is more intellectual than economic, political, etc etc, and that most of the ideas that shape our thinking are prehistoric in origin - would not get an argument from most historians. And Fernandez-Armesto's right-wing bias jumps off of every page and hits you in the face. Anything left of center is dismissed as "unreali
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Nov 07, 2007
Jason
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This book focuses on ideas thought to be important or pivotal to the development of history and humans. It's a somewhat cursory examination which is both a blessing and a burden. A blessing from the aspect that you don't get bogged down on one idea for a long period of time and also a burden because sometimes certain ideas interest you to the point where you want to read more about them. The book contains many nice illustrations and captions which tend to liven the subject and make it more allur
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Aug 06, 2010
Nikzad
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The part on "hunter gatherer" humans and their ideas was interesting. Example: The idea of Time, Calender, inheritance, farming etc.
Aug 25, 2008
Michael
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Over 175 of the worlds greatest ideas are discussed in this book. They are explained in great understandable details. Each idea has recommended books to read for more undertsanding of the subject. Each idea also has modern and historical images relating to the idea. Some examples are the idea of measuring time, the idea of writing and the idea of atoms. You will learn a lot in this book. I was most impressed with the idea of the computer in 1833 but never finished since it needed the power of el
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Jun 29, 2007
Jess
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This book talks about where a the ideas that underly parts of our western culture originated. It is organized into a cronological order by chapters begining with pre-history up until the post-modern period. Each page elaborates on a single idea, so the book is more like a collection of encyclopedia articles than a typical non-fiction read. If you like ideas, self-reflection and history, this book is definitely for you.
Dec 16, 2009
Lucy
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Fun, with lots of pretty pictures. Interesting to look at it from a cultural perspective, too.
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