That Was Genius

That Was Genius shines a spotlight on the unbelievable inventions and innovations of ancient peoples from across the world, and will change how you think about history and science.

This technological treasury of hidden histories uncovers gadgets and gizmos from the ancient and recent past, creating a richly detailed gift-book perfect for budding historians looking for a fresh take on the non-fiction they know and love.

See inside steam-powered robots from ancient Greece, learn the secrets of medieval alchemy, and marvel at an earthquake detector from ancient China. Forget your dusty history books — this is a book of marvels that are stranger than fiction. Each entry is linked to a real, up-to-the-minute STEM topic to show just how much we can learn from the ancient world. Discover what the Rosetta Stone has in common with A.I. and what a shipwrecked artefact from ancient Greece can tell us about modern-day computers.

Spanning five continents and thousands of years, That Was Genius covers:

• Incredible innovations from the ancient world, including razor-sharp obsidian tools, a mystical Viking compass, and Aboriginal Australian songlines.
• Enormous libraries that once housed knowledge now lost to time, such as those of Alexandria and Baghdad.
• Spotlight inventors whose wildest dreams went unrealised — ranging from the original Renaissance Man, Leonardo da Vinci, to computing pioneer Ada Lovelace.

Did-you-know historical narratives meet in-depth detail on the science behind each invention, with text written by science communicator and children's non-fiction author Emily Dodd. The technologies, inventors, and artefacts are reimagined in Christian Gralingen's puzzlebox illustrations, which open up these machines and invite readers of all ages to solve the mysteries of the distant past.