The Idea Machine: How Books Built Our World and Shape Our Future
Joel J. Miller, Globe Pequot, £30)
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It's hard to imagine a time when books were once precious objects, and libraries an indicator of formidable power and influence; an era when just the very idea of a book - as opposed to a scroll - was considered remarkable. Miller traces the development of books right back to the origins of writing itself, and then onwards, through to the development of the world wide web and beyond, past Al.
What emerges from Miller's telling is essentially a history of problems in search of solutions. How do we know what information is available? How do we find it quickly? How do we then use it?
Underlying the book's insights is a simple, yet profound notion - that the act of writing something down enables others to respond to that information and think about it, hence the title. The written word has endured for millennia, and herein you'll discover why.
This review was first published in Teach Secondary magazine.