The Penguin Book of Firsts

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 contraceptives 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 before Australia and England. And did you know that England taught America baseball, and the Irish learnt football in Australia?

The Penguin Book of Firsts identifies the major firsts in every field: science, sport and society, philosophy, finance and food, literature, language and law, music and medicine, inventions, religions, politics and war, and many others.

The only complete reference of its kind, The Penguin Book of Firsts will amaze and delight with its myriad insights into human progress.