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Five Innovations That Changed Human History

Five Innovations That Changed Human History

Five Innovations That Changed Human History

Transitions and Impacts
Robin Derricourt, University of New South Wales, Sydney
November 2024
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Adobe eBook Reader
9781009523387
$30.99
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    We live in an era of major technological developments, post-pandemic social adjustment, and dramatic climate change arising from human activity. Considering these phenomena within the long span of human history, we might ask: which innovations brought about truly significant and long-lasting transformations? Drawing on both historical sources and archaeological discoveries, Robin Derricourt explores the origins and earliest development of five major achievements in our deep history, and their impacts on multiple aspects of human lives. The topics presented are the taming and control of fire, the domestication of the horse,and its later association with the wheeled vehicle, the invention of writing in early civilisations, the creation of the printing press and the printed book, and the revolution of wireless communication with the harnessing of radio waves. Written in an engaging and accessible style, Derricourt's survey of key innovations makes us consider what we mean by long-term change, and how the modern world fits into the human story.

    • Presents a narrative of five major innovations in human history  
    • Identifies the multiple impacts on society arising from a single innovation
    • Covers different examples across time and space, moving readers away from a presentist and Eurocentric model of history

    Reviews & endorsements

    ‘This book is an important resource for students of all levels of education who are interested in history, archaeology, and the impact innovations or inventions throughout history have on the world. … Recommended.’ L. Dubell, CHOICE

    See more reviews

    Product details

    November 2024
    Adobe eBook Reader
    9781009523387
    0 pages
    This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.

    Table of Contents

    • List of illustrations
    • 1. Introduction: transitions and impacts
    • 2. Taming fire
    • 3. Domesticating horses
    • 4. Developing writing
    • 5. Inventing printing
    • 6. Communicating wirelessly
    • 7. Innovation, progress and presentism
    • Notes
    • Further reading
    • Index.
      Author
    • Robin Derricourt , University of New South Wales, Sydney

      Robin Derricourt is an honorary professor of history at the University of New South Wales and a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. His previous books in archaeology and history include Inventing Africa, Antiquity Imagined, Creating God: The Birth and Growth of Major Religions, and Unearthing Childhood: Young Lives in Prehistory, which won the 2019 PROSE Award in Ancient History and Archaeology.