31 Inventions that Built Our World
FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 47 BORDERS
Will be published approx. on 27. August 2026
Book
Hardback
368 pages
978-1-0354-3276-9 (ISBN)
Description
A FASCINATING DELVE INTO THE HISTORY OF THE CITY, BY THE SUNDAY TIMES #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 47 BORDERS
'Charming and outstandingly nerdish'
ROBERT WEBB
'I love Jonn Elledge; I love the way he looks at the world'
MARINA HYDE
_________
For over 10,000 years, we humans have been busy altering our environment and embracing 'progress', evolving seamlessly from hunter gatherers to the modern urban sophisticates we see ourselves as today.
But what are the ideas and inventions that enabled humanity to become, by the early 21st century, a majority urban species for the first time? How did the essential infrastructure of modern life - the innovations that we barely even notice, but without which our world would fall apart - actually come to be?
With his characteristic wit and boundless curiosity, Jonn Elledge invites us to join him on a fascinating and often surprising tour of the ideas and technologies that made modernity possible. From elevators to electric lighting, parks to pedestrian crossings, he guides us through the history of civilisation itself.
A History of the World in 47 Borders was The Sunday Times No 1 Bestseller April 2025
'Charming and outstandingly nerdish'
ROBERT WEBB
'I love Jonn Elledge; I love the way he looks at the world'
MARINA HYDE
_________
For over 10,000 years, we humans have been busy altering our environment and embracing 'progress', evolving seamlessly from hunter gatherers to the modern urban sophisticates we see ourselves as today.
But what are the ideas and inventions that enabled humanity to become, by the early 21st century, a majority urban species for the first time? How did the essential infrastructure of modern life - the innovations that we barely even notice, but without which our world would fall apart - actually come to be?
With his characteristic wit and boundless curiosity, Jonn Elledge invites us to join him on a fascinating and often surprising tour of the ideas and technologies that made modernity possible. From elevators to electric lighting, parks to pedestrian crossings, he guides us through the history of civilisation itself.
A History of the World in 47 Borders was The Sunday Times No 1 Bestseller April 2025
Reviews / Votes
Charming and outstandingly nerdish * ROBERT WEBB *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Headline Publishing Group
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
b/w chapter opener line drawings throughout
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-0354-3276-9 (9781035432769)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Jonn Elledge
31 Inventions that Built Our World
FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN 47 BORDERS
E-Book
approx. 08/2026
Wildfire
€14.99
Not yet available
Person
Jonn Elledge is a New Statesman and New World columnist, a regular on the podcasts Oh God, What Now? and the late, lamented Paper Cuts, and a frequent contributor to The i Paper, the Guardian and assorted other publications. He was previously an assistant editor at the New Statesman, where he created and ran its urbanism-focused CityMetric site, spending six happy years writing about cities, maps and borders and hosting the Skylines podcast. He has written three books, including the number-one bestseller A History of the World in 47 Borders, as well as over 200 editions of the Newsletter of (Not Quite) Everything. He lives in London, with the best dog in the world.