Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention

Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud is Peter Watson's history of the world told through its ideas rather than through its rulers, wars or dynasties. Watson's premise is that the proper subject of history is what human beings have thought and invented, and he traces that story from deep antiquity to the present day, beginning with the mastery of fire and ending with Freud. Along the way he treats the invention of writing, of mathematics, of science and of philosophy, and the rise of concepts such as the law, sacrifice, democracy and the soul, giving each the standing more usually reserved for a battle or a reign. The organising claim is that ideas are connected across time and across apparently unrelated fields, and Watson sets out to reveal the linkages down the ages between philosophers, astronomers, religious leaders, biologists, inventors, poets, jurists and scores of others who would not ordinarily be read together. He offers the resulting narrative as an illuminated path towards a greater understanding of the world and of ourselves, distilling history's greatest ideas and inventions into an account of its driving forces, carried by anecdote and written in an approachable register.

Written from the publisher description, HarperCollins.

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• Peter Watson