Unsung Heroes
Feb. 5th, 2019 08:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiBook Review: How We Got to Now - Six Innovations that made the Modern World, by Steven Johnson
I enjoyed the TV series of the same name a few years ago, so when I saw this on a book-swap shelf I thought I would see if the book was as good. I'm pleased to report that it was. Johnson picks some very un-epic stories and narrates them in a very engaging and intelligent way, showing how sometimes mundane materials and concepts, and forgotten innovators, have played a key role in the development of widely used science and technology. The main chapters are Glass, Cold, Sound, Clean, Time and Light, each discussing things we take for granted in the developed world yet which have been commonplace sometimes for only a century or so, and none for more than a few hundred years. Galileo gets a mention, but for the most part the names are not famous: it's about the historical accidents and coincidences that drove development, such as forcing exiled glass blowers to concentrate on the island of Murano in Venice to avoid disastrous infernos across the city, or having the crazy idea of cutting ice from lakes in New England to the Caribbean for refreshment. The development of sewer systems as a response to cholera and other epidemics, or the precision and standardisation of time as a consequence of rail travel, are perhaps more well known. A final appendix discusses Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage; it's not clear whether this is reworked from a dropped episode in the series, but it probably should stand alone as it's the only chapter that focuses on relatively well-known historical figures. Highly recommended.
I enjoyed the TV series of the same name a few years ago, so when I saw this on a book-swap shelf I thought I would see if the book was as good. I'm pleased to report that it was. Johnson picks some very un-epic stories and narrates them in a very engaging and intelligent way, showing how sometimes mundane materials and concepts, and forgotten innovators, have played a key role in the development of widely used science and technology. The main chapters are Glass, Cold, Sound, Clean, Time and Light, each discussing things we take for granted in the developed world yet which have been commonplace sometimes for only a century or so, and none for more than a few hundred years. Galileo gets a mention, but for the most part the names are not famous: it's about the historical accidents and coincidences that drove development, such as forcing exiled glass blowers to concentrate on the island of Murano in Venice to avoid disastrous infernos across the city, or having the crazy idea of cutting ice from lakes in New England to the Caribbean for refreshment. The development of sewer systems as a response to cholera and other epidemics, or the precision and standardisation of time as a consequence of rail travel, are perhaps more well known. A final appendix discusses Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage; it's not clear whether this is reworked from a dropped episode in the series, but it probably should stand alone as it's the only chapter that focuses on relatively well-known historical figures. Highly recommended.