Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud

by Peter Watson

Publisher:

HarperCollins e-books

, 2024

Overview

The acclaimed author of The German Genius presents a sweeping intellectual historian of human civilization: “[An] extraordinary book” (Sunday Telegraph, UK).

In Ideas, Peter Watson has undertaken a hugely ambitious study, charting the evolution of human history from deep antiquity to the present day through the lens of intellectual development. Here is the grand story of human thought from the invention of writing, mathematics, science, and philosophy to the rise of such concepts as the law, sacrifice, democracy, and the soul. Impassioned and erudite, Ideas offers an illuminated path to a greater understanding of our world and ourselves.

“This is a grand book . . . The history of ideas deserves treatment on this scale.” —Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Evening Standard (London)

Product Details

• Title: Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud
• Author: Peter Watson
• Publisher: HarperCollins e-books
• Print Publication Date: 2024
• Logos Release Date: 2024
• Pages: 848
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9780061800306, 9780060935641, 0060935642, 0061800309
• Resource ID: LLS:9780061800306
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-21T11:18:40Z

About Peter Watson

Peter Watson was educated at Durham University and the Universities of London and Rome, and was awarded scholarships in Italy and the United States. After serving as deputy editor of New Society magazine, he spent four years on the Sunday Times “Insight” team of investigative journalists. Watson wrote the daily diary column for the London Times before becoming that paper’s New York correspondent, eventually returning to London to write about the art world for the Observer and then the Sunday Times.
 
He has published three exposés on the world of art and antiquities, twelve books of nonfiction, and seven novels—some under the pen name Mackenzie Ford—and from 1997 to 2007 was a research associate at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge. Watson lives in London, where his interests include theatre, opera, and fishing.