Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud

It is quite impossible for any one person to say with absolute authority exactly what are all the ideas, concepts, innovations and insights that lead the human forward in the advancement of civilization through the activities of harnessing nature,establishing just laws, instituting the best educational curriculum for social progress, and understanding what psyche is; but the author has taken up the challenge and done exceptionally well. This book is not really a story that starts at some beginning of time and then brings the reader up to a conclusion at our own contemporary time, but instead, is a referential body of the episodes in human history that allowed successive generations of man to build the next future upon and from which then brought forth the steady rise of human betterment. Mr. Watson begins with the civilization of Sumer and proceeds to the last pages with the great scientific breakthroughs of modern physics and American law at the beginning of the 20th century. This is history told in a different light and is one worth reading. One can pick any chapter or any paragraph at random if so desired and find themselves enriched. Or, one can read from beginning to end without interruption. When it is customary for historical work to usually highlight the actions of presidents, titans of commerce, military generals and admirals, campaigns of conquests and the corresponding rise and fall of political systems and their empires, Mr. Watson traces a very different path here and the reader is well rewarded. Does he include all the important philosophers and scientists, engineers and artists and men of medicine? No. But that is not really a shortcoming. He does an adroit job of showing how the rise of man's intellect and improvement in living has been a steady progression of brilliant steps which subtly reveals just what a marvel is the human mind, just what an amazing species are we humans, able to look at the world and pluck out of the imaginative well that is the mind some element that when utilized changes the whole of our world, usually for the good. This book is easy to read, made for any age and lays forth an encouragement that the reader will continue to delve deeper into human history and to pay more attention to those who are often forgotten or ignored in the usual quest of national pride to place triumphant heroes on pedestals to be deified by the common person or to be idolized by some future grandiose politician. I cannot possibly think that any one can truly find fault with the scope and perspective and general aim of this book and what it strives to accomplish.

Ideas by Peter Watson Wow! It doesn't get more ambitious than this. This is a book about the history of ideas. How can anyone tackle such an ambitious topic in one book? Well, somehow someway Peter Watson does exactly that. The author jumps from one interesting topic to another with mastery: language, science, weaponry, religion, society, economics, inventions, music... It was an investment in knowledge. An investment that pays off at the end. I can't remember the last time, I've learned so much from one book. It's a quest for knowledge and journey through time and inventions...I'm so thankful for authors like Mr. Watson who's incredible dedication and scholarly work make it so worth my time. Positives: 1. So much knowledge covered in one book. Astonishing! 2. Interesting tidbits throughout and I enjoyed how the author ties things together. 3. Evolution of civilization has never been taught better, great job. 4. It's encyclopedic work condensed in a book. 5. Elegantly and clearly written. 6. A wide and I mean wide range of topics. 7. Uncanny ability to introduce a new topic just when you have exhausted the existing one. 8. Good overall flow. Negatives: 1. It's an investment of time. 2. It's expected that some topics will be covered better than others. 3. I didn't quite understand Freud's impact. 4. The links didn't work! How disappointing...Amazon please make sure the links work before releasing the Kindle versions...argh. In summary, this is a must book for all those curious about the greatest ideas of humankind. I commend the author for providing this gift of knowledge for all to enjoy. Thank you.

“Ideas”, by Peter Watson, is a remarkable book, and not one to be approached lightly. At 800+ pages it is encyclopedic in content. Rather than being organized alphabetically, it is organized around 36 broad ideas, each with its own chapter. It is well indexed, with one index devoted to names and places, another to ideas. Even so, the scope is so vast, key names are missing in the index, an example being Copernicus. The best way to approach the book is probably by reading a specific chapter of interest. An example might be chapter 23 titled “The Genius of Experiment”, which is about the scientific revolution, and which does indeed give considerable credit to Copernicus. Having said that, chapter 23 is just one of 36 chapters, so its treatment of the scientific revolution is necessarily brief. Much more thorough treatments of the rise of modern science can be found elsewhere, for instance in “A History of Science” by W.C. Dampier first published in 1929. A fascinating aspect of Watson’s book is that it highlights the unevenness of the development of ideas, both geographically and over time. It is a refreshing departure from the “Western Civilization” approach to so many of its topics. There is a lot of discussion of things outside the Levant-Greece-Rome-Europe corridor so prominent in so many treatments. In chapter 3 titled “The Birth of the Gods, the Evolution of House and Home”, for instance, we learn that the domestication of plants and animals occurred independently in 2 areas of the world for certain, and probably 7. The certain 2 are the Fertile Crescent and Mesoamerica. The probably 5 are New Guinea, China, sub-Saharan Africa, the Andes, and eastern North America. If you are fascinated by history and ideas, this is a great book to have at your fingertips. It is remarkable that Watson could have assembled, organized, and presented so much information. In the small bits that I know something about, Watson is spot-on!

In diesem Buch stellt der Autor die Entwicklung der wichtigsten Ideen dar (vom Feuer bis zu Freud). Die Darstellung beginnt mit den Erfindungen der Urmenschen (Feuer, Faustkeil, Religion) und endet bei der "Entdeckung" des Unterbewusstseins durch Freud. Das zwanzigste Jahrhundert wird in einem anderen Buch behandelt. Einige der Ideen sind: - Kapitalismus, Liberalismus, Fabriken, Armut / Reichtum, Adel / Bürgertum / Arbeiter - Marx, Sozialismus, Gewerkschaften - Religionen und Atheismus - Entstehung der Geisteswissenschaften (Soziologie, Wirtschaftswissenschaften) - Nationalismus, Imperialismus - Verhältnis von Staat und Kirche bzw. Kaiser und Papst - Darwins Evolutionstheorie und deren Verbindungen zu Soziologie, Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Rassismus - Philosophie von der Antike (Plato, Aristoteles) über Leibniz, Spinoza und Kant bis zum amerikanischen Pragmatismus (Dewey) - politische Theorien wie Demokratie und Gewaltenteilung von der Antike über Machiavelli, Locke und Hobbes zur Moderne (vor allem Mill und Marx) - Entwicklung der Naturwissenschaften (vor allem Kopernikus, Newton und Galilei) und deren Probleme mit der Inquisition Daraus ergeben sich eine Reihe von Fragen, die im Buch auch beantwortet werden: - Welche Verbindung besteht zwischen Reformation und Kapitalismus? - Warum entstand die führende Zivilisation in Europa? - Weshalb waren China, Indien und Islam früher Europa voraus und warum kehrte sich dieses Verhältnis um? Das Buch ist auf dem neuesten Stand; so werden z. B. auch schon die Zwergurmenschen auf der Insel Flores (von manchen "Hobbits" genannt) beschrieben. Die Darstellung ist i. d. R. ausgewogen. Nach Ansicht des Autors ist der rote Faden der Ideengeschichte die Suche nach der Seele bzw. dem menschlichen Bewusstsein. Diese Frage habe von den Naturwissenschaften und der Vernunft abgelenkt und zu übernatürlichen Spekulationen geführt; eine allgemein akzeptierte Antwort gibt es bis heute nicht. Deshalb sei die Philosophie des rationalen Aristoteles insgesamt hilfreicher gewesen als die des idealistischen Plato. Natürlich wird jeder etwas finden, was seiner Meinung nach besser oder zusätzlich hätte beschrieben werden können. Mir kam z. B. die Darstellung der Wirtschaftswissenschaften etwas zu kurz. Wenn man die Evolution der Wirtschaftswissenschaften von Smith über Ricardo zu Marx beschreibt, hätte man auch die größte Revolution der Wirtschaftswissenschaften erwähnen sollen (nämlich die "subjektive Wertlehre" von Menger, Walras, Jevons um 1870; durch diese wird u. a. Marx' Lohntheorie widerlegt). Die von Menger gegründete "österreichische Schule" stellt die Folgen der Industriellen Revolution nicht so negativ dar wie der Autor: Es stimmt demnach zwar, dass durch die Industrialisierung viele Arme in die Fabriken der Städte strömten, wo sie unter unmenschlichen Bedingungen arbeiten mussten; auf dem Land ging es ihnen aber zuvor noch schlechter (wenn sie dort nicht ohnehin verhungerten). Viele Missstände lassen sich auf die Napoleonischen Kriege und staatliche Eingriffe in die Marktwirtschaft (z. B. Steuern auf Fenster, sodass fensterlose Häuser gebaut wurden) zurück führen. Das kann man in "Capitalism and the Historians" von Hayek nachlesen. Ich kann das Buch jedem empfehlen, der seinen Horizont erweitern möchte. Man lernt auf jeder Seite etwas Neues.

An amazing book. My thanks and admiration to Peter Watson for such exceptional scholarship. Delivery earlier than anticipated also. Great reading for 2015!

Very detailed history of human civilization

One of the best books I have ever read. It's over 800 pages, yet I read it three times.

I bought it as a gift and I opened the box, the cover was damaged.