Is the an extensive "History of inventions" book out there?

[Tanukitsune]

I've been trying to find books about the history of inventions, but the ones I've found seem to prefer to talk about the industrial era. I was hoping to find a book that went back as far as possible, hopefully to as far back as pottery and written language? 

 

I'd rather have a book that went through more history and was less thorough than a very detailed one that only talked about the more "popular" inventions.

 

Frankly, I think I'd almost prefer a book about the first inventions from the dawn of civilization. Pottery and irrigation!

[gregbrown]

Ideas by Peter Watson is probably the closest you'll find (along with its 20h century follow-up The Modern Mind). It's not purely focused on technology, but more an intellectual history of all innovations. Fascinating, for sure.

[Tanukitsune]

Thanks, this does sound pretty much like what I'm looking for.

[osmosisch]

Somewhat unrelated but this thread reminded me of this amazing book that was very formative for me:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Way_Things_Work

[deadmoscow]

  On 2/18/2014 at 8:37 PM, gregbrown said:

Ideas by Peter Watson

 

I saw the thread title and immediately jumped in hoping I could be the first to post this.  It's a really awesome book!

[TimeSlip]

There's a book called "Events that Changed the World" by Time Warner, although it's only partly dedicated to inventions, it also covers major cultural and political events. It's chronogical and gives a quick summary of each event (1-2 pages). The time span is longer than you requested though, as it pretty much starts from the early days of civilisation.

[tabacco]

  On 2/19/2014 at 11:49 AM, osmosisch said:

Somewhat unrelated but this thread reminded me of this amazing book that was very formative for me:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Way_Things_Work

 

I grew up reading that book, and ended up hunting down a new copy a year or two ago just because I loved it so much. It's still great

[Damian]

Peter Watson seems to have made his career as a historian writing exactly the kind of books you are looking for.

 

For a more ideas-based book, and one that is better than Watson's, I strongly recommend (everyone) read Jacques Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence, which traces Western thought from 1500 - 2000.  He wrote it when he was in his 90s, and it came after a lifetime of writing and thinking about history and philosophy.