The idea of human progress is as enduring as any. Beyond the occasional dystopian doubt, we need to believe that our species is advancing. So the message of technological innovation - be that nuclear power, the Pill, the computer or the Space Age - is received readily.

Edgerton's arresting argument is that this perception of technological progress is mistaken. He addresses the common shibboleths. Like most of us, I had believed, for example, that the “space race” may have cost billions of dollars and achieved little, but generated many important spin-offs - such as Teflon. Not so, according to Edgerton. Teflon was invented in 1938 and has been gracing frying-pans since 1954. Or consider weaponry. Edgerton avers that “the horse made a greater contribution to Nazi conquest than the V2”. And even if some of his statistics are simplistic, such as there being more bicycles made today than cars, his argument stands in this iconoclastic and thought-provoking book.

And his conclusion? That it would be better, and more sustainable, to encourage “creole” (meaning derivative and eclectic) technology. Examples range from the rickshaw to the millions of small iron-smelters in China. He may not be right, but he makes a strong case that accords with what Virgil identified around 25BC as a definitive human characteristic. Our lives consist of semper cedentia retro: always going forwards backwards.

The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History since 1900 by David Edgerton
Profile Books, £9.99

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