The Innovators

Walter Isaacson – former managing editor of Time magazine and former chairman of CNN – sets out a linear history of innovation. He begins in the 18th century and details significant players from that era until 2014. He fully proves his theme: that history produced a continuum of innovators whose work built on the efforts of those before them and culminated in computing, artificial intelligence (AI), the internet, mobile technology, and more.

This tale of teamwork is important because we don’t often focus on how central that skill is to innovation.Walter Isaacson

Isaacson regards this evolution of innovation as its own culture, with its own heroes, mythologies, and notions of right and wrong. He makes a convincing, if lengthy, case. As with many biographers, Isaacson seems compelled to include every detail his research uncovered, but he does it with unusual flow, engagement and accessibility.