“I am TOTALLY one of those people who loves esoteric history; I love reading of events/people that one never heard about in history class, or, as in this delightful reading, the connection or line between disparate events and discoveries. For instance, as I learned from this book, how the advent of the printed word really precipitated the development of glasses: up until there were books to read, no one KNEW they needed spectacles! Or how people who lived in the tropics were totally uninterested in ice for cooling or drinks and how fortunes were lost in the mistaken idea they would relish having such an innovation. Johnson follows six innovations from inception to modern times: refrigeration (totally fascinating!!), clocks, lenses, water purification, recorded sound, and artificial light. The discoverers/entrepreneurs are as fascinating as the innovations themselves. This book explores and reveals the ‘power and legacy of great ideas.’ A most fascinating history of everyday objects that we all use and most likely have no clue of how they came to be.”
—Sue, Paulina Springs Books, Sisters, OR
Get yourself a copy of How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World from Paulina Springs, via that most amazing innovation known as the internet. Better yet, go old school innovation with one of those automobiles—or maybe even a bicycle!—and drop in on Sue and her cutting edge influencers of literary taste cohorts at Paulina Springs.
