Whose Bright Idea Was That?: Great Firsts of World History - Softcover

As this fascinating, witty, and surprising book reveals, we quite often attribute first in world history to the wrong people. Many "modern" ideas and inventions actually date back to ancient times. The use of steroids can be traced back to the Sung dynasty. Oral contraceptives were popular in ancient Greece. A Communist revolution took place long before Lenin and Trotsky. The famous croissant comes not from France but from Austria. Canada and the United States played cricket before England and Australia. In Whose Bright Idea Was That? you'll discover that many things we hold dear began outside their traditional homelands. Whose Bright Idea Was That? identifies the major first in every field in over 1,600 entries covering science, sports, philosophy, finance, food and drink, literature, music, medicine, and many others. The most entertaining and informative reference book of its kind, it will amaze and delight with its myriad insights into human progress.