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How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World
Contributor(s): Johnson, Steven (Author)
ISBN: 0425287785     ISBN-13: 9780425287781
Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
OUR PRICE:   $18.99  
Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats
Published: October 2018
Qty:
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Juvenile Nonfiction | Technology - Inventions
- Juvenile Nonfiction | Science & Nature - Discoveries
- Juvenile Nonfiction | Technology - How Things Work | Are Made
Dewey: 303.483
LCCN: 2017060707
Lexile Measure: 1150
Physical Information: 0.7" H x 7.7" W x 9.1" (1.55 lbs) 160 pages
Accelerated Reader Info
Quiz #: 199138
Reading Level: 8.7   Interest Level: Middle Grades   Point Value: 5.0
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
Did you drink a glass of water today? Did you turn on a light? Did you think about how miraculous either one of those things is when you did it? Of course not--but you should, and New York Times bestselling author Steven Johnson has. This adaptation of his adult book and popular PBS series explores the fascinating and interconnected stories of innovations--like clean drinking water and electricity--that changed the way people live.

Innovation starts with a problem whose solution sets in motion all kinds of unexpected discoveries. That's why you can draw a line from pendulums to punching the clock at a factory, from ice blocks to summer movie blockbusters, from clean water to computer chips.

In the lively storytelling style that has made him a popular, bestselling author, Steven Johnson looks at how accidental genius, brilliant mistakes, and unintended consequences shape the way we live in the modern world. Johnson's long zoom approach connects history, geography, politics, and scientific advances with the deep curiousity of inventors or quirky interests of tinkerers to show how innovation truly comes about.

His fascinating account is organized into six topics: glass, cold, sound, clean, time, light. Johnson's fresh exploration of these simple, single-syllable word concepts creates an endlessly absorbing story that moves from lightning strikes in the prehistoric desert to the herculean effort to literally raise up the city of Chicago to laser labs straight out of a sci-fi movie.

In other words, it's the story of how we got to now