The World's Greatest Idea

By John Farndon

Where would humanity be now without fire, vaccinations, farming … or wine? A great idea is one that has changed the path of human civilisation. But which is the greatest of them all? John Farndon, author of the bestselling Do You Think You’re Clever?, has set out to find the answer. A distinguished panel of experts agreed on a list of 50 ideas, and each chapter of The World’s Greatest Idea sees Farndon explore the argument for a different one. The candidates are intriguingly varied: Electricity grids enable us to power our cities, but then sewers allowed those cities to grow. Without the wheel, modern civilisation would be pretty much impossible, but take away Logic and we’d lose the essential structures for rational thought ... But then what would be the point of all of this without the idea of romance? The World’s Greatest Idea is an enthralling voyage of discovery through the most powerful intellectual, social, scientific and creative brainwaves humans have ever had. They are ranked in the book determined by a public vote on www.theworldsgreatestidea.com But will you agree with the verdict?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Icon Books Ltd
• Release date: Oct 7, 2010
• ISBN: 9781848312487

John Farndon

John Farndon is a Royal Literary Fellow at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK, and the author of a huge number of books for adults and children on science, history, technology and nature, including such international best-sellers as Do Not Open and Do You Think You're Clever? 

Reviews for The World's Greatest Idea

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The main interesting thing about this is the various ideas that have been chosen as the world's greatest ideas -- not necessarily the best ones, the ones that have improved humanity, but the great ones, that have moved the world. They're a mix of science and politics and agriculture and technology and... just about anything you can think of.

It does end up being rather dry, since it's basically a list, though there are some interesting explanations as to why things were put forward as a great idea.

[adpaton · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Most of us would agree with John Farndon’s choices for the “Fifty Greatest Ideas that have Changed Humanity” especially as he employs generic terms like ‘Monotheism’ which encompasses religion while Vaccination covers most advances in health and hygiene. The order in which he presents the ideas is debatable however: number one being the Internet, followed by Writing and then Contraception – Monotheism comes in at #46. It’s a safe bet that the Pope won’t promote the book as part of his Christmas Day address but nonetheless it is an edifying and entertaining read.