Inventing the 20th Century: 100 Inventions That Shaped the World

by Stephen van Dulken

Imagine your average day without television, vacuum cleaners, photocopiers and personal stereos. This title offers window onto the technology of the 20th century. By combining a brief history of each patent (the zip fastener, the post-it note) with a copy of the patent illustration, it reveals the ways in which many of the most basic aspects of our material existence have been revolutionized through specific objects.

Genres: History

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Roy · Rating 2 out of 5]

NOT a book about "the most significant 20th
century inventions."

The subtitle says, "100 inventions that shaped
the world," and the preface states, "this book
describes 100 significant, or at least interesting,
inventions..." In fact, the book has profound
inventions (transistor) as well as inconsequential
inventions (silly putty). Did silly putty or Scrabble
shape the world?

The index is incomplete. For example, missing from
the index are Kennedy, John F. (p. 148) and Internet
(p. 149.) But worse, the writing is painfully abstruse.
For example, "The 1970s were to confirm the beginning
of much reduction and rationalisation of industry
some of it, like shipbuilding and steel, moving
increasingly to the cheaper Far East."

And this whopper:
But if many of the hopes of the early decade were
tarnished by its end international cooperation
and shared concerns, together with the ability
to speak freely in so many countries, were still
far greater than the years of the Cold War and
of Vietnam would have foreseen.

You can peruse yourself at archive.org. The book is
copyright by The British Library Board.

[Gayle Pritchard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun book with cool illustrations. Although the writing is dry, the decade by decade synopses are concise and thorough (except for ignoring the art world completely), and it is interesting to know what was invented when, and by whom.