How We Got to Now by Steven Johnson

How We Got to Now by Steven Johnson

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

Steven Johnson is co-author of The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame series with Greg Oliver. Johnson holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia and has received several awards for investigative and general news reporting. He lives in Springfield, VA. Heath McCoy is a pop culture reporter and rock critic for the Calgary Herald. He is the author of the forthcoming book, Pain and Passion: The History of Stampede Wrestling (ECW, October 2007). Irvin Muchnick has written about a variety of subjects including wrestling for many publications, including the Village Voice and The New York Times. His new book, Wrestling Babylon: Piledriving Tales of Drugs, Sex, Death and Scandal, was released by ECW in April 2007. Greg Oliver is a writer and editor from Toronto. Oliver has covered professional wrestling for 20 years through the Slam! Wrestling Web site, the Canadian Wrestling Report newsletter, magazines and newspapers. With Steven Johnson, he has written The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame series.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781594632969
ISBN 10	1594632960
Title	How We Got to Now
Author	Steven Johnson
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Penguin Putnam Inc
Year published	2014-09-30
Number of pages	304
Prizes	Short-listed for PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award 2014
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable