The Origins of Invention

The Origins of Invention
Title The Origins of Invention PDF eBook
Author Otis Tufton Mason
Publisher
Pages 476
Release 1896
Genre Industries, Primitive
ISBN

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The Greatest Invention

The Greatest Invention
Title The Greatest Invention PDF eBook
Author Silvia Ferrara
Publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Pages 227
Release 2022-03-01
Genre Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN 0374601631

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In this exhilarating celebration of human ingenuity and perseverance—published all around the world—a trailblazing Italian scholar sifts through our cultural and social behavior in search of the origins of our greatest invention: writing. The L where a tabletop meets the legs, the T between double doors, the D of an armchair’s oval backrest—all around us is an alphabet in things. But how did these shapes make it onto the page, never mind form complex structures such as this sentence? In The Greatest Invention, Silvia Ferrara takes a profound look at how—and how many times—human beings have managed to produce the miracle of written language, traveling back and forth in time and all across the globe to Mesopotamia, Crete, China, Egypt, Central America, Easter Island, and beyond. With Ferrara as our guide, we examine the enigmas of undeciphered scripts, including famous cases like the Phaistos Disk and the Voynich Manuscript; we touch the knotted, colored strings of the Inca quipu; we study the turtle shells and ox scapulae that bear the earliest Chinese inscriptions; we watch in awe as Sequoyah single-handedly invents a script for the Cherokee language; and we venture to the cutting edge of decipherment, in which high-powered laser scanners bring tears to an engineer’s eye. A code-cracking tour around the globe, The Greatest Invention chronicles a previously uncharted journey, one filled with past flashes of brilliance, present-day scientific research, and a faint, fleeting glimpse of writing’s future.

Concise History of Science & Invention

Concise History of Science & Invention
Title Concise History of Science & Invention PDF eBook
Author Jolyon Goddard
Publisher National Geographic Books
Pages 355
Release 2010
Genre History
ISBN 1426205449

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A global view of science and technology as it developed over the centuries.

Origins, Invention, Revision

Origins, Invention, Revision
Title Origins, Invention, Revision PDF eBook
Author James S. Ackerman
Publisher
Pages 0
Release 2016
Genre ARCHITECTURE
ISBN 9780300218718

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An illuminating collection of essays from the preeminent scholar of architectural history and theory One of the most distinguished scholars in the fields of architectural history and theory today, James Sloss Ackerman is best known for his work on Italian masters such as Palladio and Michelangelo. In this collection of essays, Ackerman offers insight into his formation and development as a scholar, as well as reflections on a range of topics. Concise, lucid, and original, this book presents deep syntheses alongside innovative approaches and a broadening geographical and chronological reach. Ackerman's enduring fascination with architecture was one unforeseen consequence of his military service in World War II, and the collection includes a revealing account of his part in the liberation of Milan as a soldier in the Fifth American Regiment. These essays represent a unique, personal journey--from the Italian Renaissance to the classical architecture of India and the work of Frank Gehry at the new museum of the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.

Mothers and Daughters of Invention

Mothers and Daughters of Invention
Title Mothers and Daughters of Invention PDF eBook
Author Autumn Stanley
Publisher Rutgers University Press
Pages 792
Release 1995
Genre Social Science
ISBN 9780813521978

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Stanley traces women's inventions in five vital areas of technology worldwide--agriculture, medicine, reproduction, machines, and computers.

The Invention of Yesterday

The Invention of Yesterday
Title The Invention of Yesterday PDF eBook
Author Tamim Ansary
Publisher PublicAffairs
Pages 456
Release 2019-10-01
Genre History
ISBN 1610397975

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From language to culture to cultural collision: the story of how humans invented history, from the Stone Age to the Virtual Age Traveling across millennia, weaving the experiences and world views of cultures both extinct and extant, The Invention of Yesterday shows that the engine of history is not so much heroic (battles won), geographic (farmers thrive), or anthropogenic (humans change the planet) as it is narrative. Many thousands of years ago, when we existed only as countless small autonomous bands of hunter-gatherers widely distributed through the wilderness, we began inventing stories--to organize for survival, to find purpose and meaning, to explain the unfathomable. Ultimately these became the basis for empires, civilizations, and cultures. And when various narratives began to collide and overlap, the encounters produced everything from confusion, chaos, and war to cultural efflorescence, religious awakenings, and intellectual breakthroughs. Through vivid stories studded with insights, Tamim Ansary illuminates the world-historical consequences of the unique human capacity to invent and communicate abstract ideas. In doing so, he also explains our ever-more-intertwined present: the narratives now shaping us, the reasons we still battle one another, and the future we may yet create.

The Invention of Tradition

The Invention of Tradition
Title The Invention of Tradition PDF eBook
Author Eric Hobsbawm
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Pages 332
Release 1992-07-31
Genre History
ISBN 9780521437738

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This book explores examples of this process of invention and addresses the complex interaction of past and present in a fascinating study of ritual and symbolism.