From the tally-stick to Bitcoin, the canal lock to the jumbo jet, each invention in Tim Harford's fascinating new book has its own curious, surprising and memorable story, a vignette against a grand backdrop. Step by step, readers will start to understand where we are, how we got here, and where we might be going next. Hidden connections will be laid bare: how the barcode undermined family corner shops; why the gramophone widened inequality; how barbed wire shaped America. We'll meet the characters who developed some of these inventions, profited from them, or were ruined by them. We'll trace the economic principles that help to explain their transformative effects. And we'll ask what lessons we can learn to make wise use of future inventions, in a world where the pace of innovation will only accelerate.

Contents
1.The Plough
Introduction
1.Winners and Losers
2.The Gramophone
3.Brbed Wire
4.Seller Feedback
5.Google Search
6.Passports
7.Robots
8.The Welfare State
II.Reinventing How We alive
9.Infant Formula
10.TV Dinners
11.The Pill
12.Video Games
13.Market Research
14.Air Conditioning
15.Department Stores
III.Inventing New Systems
16.The Dynamo
17.The Shipping Container
18.The Barcode
19.The Cold Chain
20.Tradable Debt and The Tally Stick
21.Billy Bookcase
22.The Elevator
iv. Ideas About Ideas
23.Cuneiform
24.Public Key Cryptography
25.Double-Entry Bookkeeping
26.Limited Liability Companies
27.Management Consulting
28.Intellectual Property
29.The Compiler
V.Where Do Inventions Come From ?
30.The Iphone
31.Diesel Engines
32.Clocks
33.The Haber-Bosch Process
34.Redar
35.Batteries
26.Plastic
vi.The Visible Hand
37.The Bank
38.Razors and Blades
39.Tax Havens
40.Leaded Petrol
41.Antibiotics in Farming
42.M-Pesa
43.Property Registers
VII.Inventing the Wheel
44.Paper
45.Index-Funds
46.The S-Bend
47.Paper Money
48.Concrete
49.Insurance
Conclusion : Looking forward
50.Epilogue : The Light Bulb
Notes
Acknowledgements
Index

Includes bibliographical references and index.