How We Got to Now: Six Innovations that Made the Modern World

by Steven Johnson

THINK ABOUT

these three things as you read

  1. What’s his claim or argument/main idea for this section?

  2. How does he prove his claim? What’s his evidence and is it convincing or are there flaws? (Look at the notes section in the back to figure out who he cites his sources. Would you prefer footnotes for sources?)

  3. HOW does the writer organize this? Pay attention to structure by looking for:

    • hooks, topic sentences with main ideas (highlight those!),

    • introducing evidence (NEV- name, expertise, verb), explaining evidence,

    • transitions between ideas, paragraphs, sections.

Watch

PBS six-episode documentary hosted by the author on How We Got to Now

Reading Schedule - Coming Soon

Week 1 (Sept 1-2) due next week

  • Read the Prologue

  • Chp 1

  • Discussion questions Set #1 will be posted below

Week 2 (Sept 8-9) due next week

  • Chp 4

  • Discussion questions Set #1 will be posted below

Week 3 (Sept 15-16) due next week

  • Chp 4

  • Discussion questions Set #1 will be posted below

Week 4 (Sept 22-23) due next week

  • Chp 5

  • Discussion questions Set #1 will be posted below

Week 5 (Sept 29-30) due next week

  • Chp 6

  • Discussion questions Set #1 will be posted below

Non-discussion question option

  1. Choose one important passage and tell us why you chose it, and why it is an important passage.

  2. Choose a fact, story, study, or claim which you think is powerful, telling, surprising, suspicious, overly broad or about which you have questions. Go to the notes section at the back of the book and turn to the page number which corresponds to the page with the fact or claim which you want to understand more about. What do you find out from the notes? Does this story/claim/fact have a credible source? Look up the source material if it is available on the internet.

Discussion Questions Set #1 for Chapters

Choose 3-5 questions and answer them in complete sentences

Discussion Questions Set #2 for Chapters

Everyone answer this question:

Choose 3-5 questions to answer. Restate the answer in your question.

Discussion Questions Set #3 for chapters

Choose 3-5 questions to answer. Restate the answer in your question.