Origins of Innovation

Man's ability to innovate fuels technological development, and thus economic and social progress. The last decades have seen enormous changes to our world, including great strides in our communication infrastructure, fuelled by the internet and the smart phone. With the burgeoning of social media, electronic banking, as well as cyber warfare, modern society faces immense and often disruptive changes in the fast-moving Age of Innovation. In a work of splendid scholarship, author B. J. G. Van der Kooij delves, in his eighth book, into the History of Innovation, starting in ancient times. Taking his readers on a tour, from the Neolithic Revolution, through the Urban, to the Axial Revolution, he analyses the Affairs of Man along the themes Climate, Technology, Religion and Society. Indeed Climate Change played a major role, even thousands of years ago and the author takes us through the stone, bone and ceramic technologies, up to the Iron Revolution. From the ancient spirits of the natural world that became the polytheistic religions ruling human affairs, he explores the ancient civilisations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome, up to the advent of Christ. These times saw technological evolution and revolution, advancing with transfer of wealth, knowledge and power; times that saw the dawn of civilisation as we know it. Illustrating how the cognitive ability of curiosity, ingenuity and creativity shaped Homo creatives, this thought-provoking study of the history and impact of innovation on civilisations, helps us to understand how Change and Novelty ruled our past, and will guide our future.