| |||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in What the Past Did for Us: A Brief History of Ancient Inventions for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
Product Description
Adam Hart-Davis, one of the nations favourite TV presenters, returns to our screens with a tour through the Top Ten developments of each of the great civilisations of the past. From the Egyptians to the Romans, Babylonians to the Arabs, Adam takes us on an epic history of the world, looking at some of the great legacies left to us by ancient cultures.
What the Past Did For Us accompanies a major 9-part new format autumn show, in which Adam is the anchorman who leads us through the history of inventions while testing some of these in the studio.
The accompanying book is an entertainingly written history of ancient cultures, capturing Adams enthusiasm for the subject. Adam tells the story of the Chinese inventors who came up with the mariners compass, paper money and gunpowder right through to the Ancient Indians who, according to Einstein taught us how to count as well as giving us the 12-month calendar year and 7-day week.
From the Back Cover
When we think of plastic surgery, vending machines, computers and fast food, many of us assume that they are modern inventions. Amazingly, these were all invented hundreds, or even thousands, of years ago.
In What the Past Did for Us, presenter and enthusiast Adam Hart-Davis takes us on a journey into the ancient world, revealing an astonishing array of innovations that occured long before many of us would ever have thought they had.
The Greeks are well-known for inventing the Olympics, but only a few of us are aware that they were responsible for building the first known computer, around 100 BC. The Romans - famous for their road building - also gave us double glazing and central heating. All in all we owe a huge debt to the ancients - from the Chinese who invented paper money and the wheelbarrow, to the early Britons who developed the first housing estate at Skara Brae, home to the world's oldest known lavatories.
Based on the television series What the Past Did for Us, this book will change the way that we look at the everyday inventions we take for granted and until now thought were from the modern age.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
There is at least one glaring discrepancy: the age of the Baghdad battery is cited as being "at least 2,000 years" in the text, but possibly only half that in the plates. To be fair, there is some room for doubt as to its actual age, but it is disappointing that the editors did not attempt to reconcile or at least explain the discrepancy.
The book does not attempt to provide a detailed account of each invention. Its strength is to convey the capacity of each of the great civilisations to overcome their own challenges, thereby leaving the reader speculating what legacies of the current era will endure for generations to come.
As the present 'giver' I was really pleased with it.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Search Customer Discussions
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
