The Penguin Book of Firsts: Amazing record of World’s Great Ideas, Discoveries, Inventions, Feats

This book identifies the major firsts in various fields : Science, sport, society, philosophy, finance, food, literature, law, music, medicine, inventions, religions, politics, war and many others. The only complete reference of its kind, this book will amaze and delight with its myriad insights into human progress. As this fascinating, witty and surprising book reveals, we quite often attribute firsts 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, and oral contraceptive were popular in ancient Greece. A Communist revolution took place long before Lenin and Trotsky. Within these pages, you’ll discover that many things we hold dear began outside their traditional homelands. The famous croissant comes not from France but from Austria. Canada and the US played international cricket long before Australia and England, and Indian ink was first made in China. India has its own firsts to add to the list : the world’s first artificial harbor is at the Harappan site of Lothal in Gujarat; Kautilya’s Arthashastra, written over 2000 years ago, is the first to mention a general anesthetic.