Fifty Things That Made The Modern Economy

“Each of these inventions tells us a story, not just about human ingenuity, but about the invisible systems that surround us: of global supply chains, of ubiquitous information, of money and ideas and, yes, even of the sewage pipe that carries away the toilet paper we flush out of sight.” (p.9)   

Overall Verdict: ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Why this book?
Now don’t get me wrong, in a never-ending list of book suggestions for a geography teacher, this may not seem like an obvious choice but for an A-Level teacher (in particular) links to what we teach abound. Similar in style to Seriously Curious, this is a book that seeks to answer those big questions.

This was one of the first non-fiction books that I read as I begun my post-university quest to maintain up to date (and exam board relevant) subject knowledge- and it remains memorable. As a fan of Tim Harford’s podcasts, I was pleased that his ability to explain difficult concepts in an engaging way transferred seamlessly from podcast to page, making this book accessible, intriguing and remarkably readable. Each chapter considers a different invention that has shaped our modern world and outlines the history of the invention before signalling its significance in the global economy.

For students:
How would the world differ if there were no passports? How did the shipping container change the world? Why is the iPhone such an important invention? Such big questions are worthy of a proper discussion and that is exactly what this book does. The global scale of inventions and innovations discussed make this book a fantastic resource for sparking EPQ ideas or for taking your study of A-Level geography further.

For teachers:
Depending on which A-Level exam board you teach, varying chapters may be of direct use to you as a resource. For me, the chapters on the passport, the shipping container, intellectual property and the iPhone are the most directly related to the Edexcel specification, yet numerous others have indirect (and highly interesting!) links to A-Level geography. What is also worth knowing is that much of the book is available as a series of BBC podcasts. These can be easily set as a homework or research task; I discuss how I’ve used the shipping container episode in my teaching of globalisation here.

Click here to find the BBC Podcast episodes.