The Early Inventions (Ideas That Changed the World: The Greatest Discoveries & Inventions Series)

Gr 5-8--Offering ``simplified text and captions'' from Robert Ingpen and Philip Wilkinson's Encyclopedia of Ideas that Changed the World (Viking, 1993), these series entries focus on technology rather than thought, and on practical inventions rather than ideas. Art and Technology has a misleading title. ``Art'' is loosely interpreted, for the focus here is on crafts (pottery, glass, and metal working) and communication. Writing, the making of the first books, the invention of lenses and, in the modern world, of the telegraph, telephone, and phonograph are described. Finally, moving images (film and TV) and computers bring the story of communication up to date. Early Inventions covers prehistoric life, the first agricultural tools, buildings of the early civilizations through the Middle Ages, and methods of timekeeping and medical treatment before the age of modern science. In both books, the writing is clear and well paced, the two-column design is spacious and comfortable to read, and Ingpen's realistic paintings are excellent. The volumes are handsome and, unlike many encyclopedias and histories of inventions that are cobbled together from various visual sources and previous publications, they possess a welcome unity of text, design, and illustration. The well-chosen suggestions for further reading offer help for serious young researchers. Placed on a shelf next to other books on the history of technology, where it is clear that ``art and ideas'' in the humanistic sense are not to be found within the covers, these accessible and attractive volumes should find many readers.

Shirley Wilton, Ocean County College, Toms River, NJ

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