The Shortest History of Innovation

Andrew Leigh's book offers a compact narrative of human ingenuity, exploring innovations from the wheel and agriculture to the printing press, industrial revolution, and contemporary technologies like AI. It challenges myths about lone geniuses by highlighting tinkering, teams and trade as drivers of innovation.

Leigh examines both the benefits and harms of major inventions, addressing social, political and ethical consequences across history.

The book uses vivid historical anecdotes to show how technologies spread and why some societies adopt them while others do not.

It also considers modern governance and risk-management issues around powerful technologies such as nuclear weapons, synthetic biology and artificial intelligence.