--- description: When it comes to inventions that changed the world, most history books cite the usual suspects--including clocks, paper and the lightbulb. But Tim Harford's Fifty... title: History’s Best Overlooked Inventions image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd189a7e2c7cb7423/6988dcbefb4eac31c08939da/history-best-overlooked-inventions.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Books](/tag/books/) ## Books Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # History's Best Overlooked Inventions by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 7, 2017 10:10 AM CUT  Fifty Inventions That Shaped The Modern Economy book cover Fifty Inventions That Shaped The Modern Economy book cover by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 7, 2017 10:10 AM CUT When it comes to inventions that changed the world, most history books cite the usual suspects–including clocks, paper and the lightbulb. But Tim Harford’s _Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy_ shines a spotlight on objects of less renown. Take barbed wire, which allowed settlers to delineate (and therefore cultivate) property on the American prairie in a way that would have been cost-prohibitive with wooden fencing. Or the replaceable razor blade, which introduced the two-part pricing model–pay now for the razor and later for more blades–that was eventually used with printers and ink cartridges, espresso machines and coffee pods, and more. Or Ikea’s Billy bookcase, which helped bridge the gap between “cheap to produce” and “aesthetically acceptable.” The Billy, Harford explains, “is a symbol of how innovation in the modern economy isn’t just about snazzy new technologies, but also boringly efficient systems.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4931065/fifty-inventions-that-shaped-the-modern-economy-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4931065/fifty-inventions-that-shaped-the-modern-economy-review/"},"headline":"History's Best Overlooked Inventions","datePublished":"2017-09-07T10:10:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T17:19:19.464Z","description":"When it comes to inventions that changed the world, most history books cite the usual suspects--including clocks, paper and the lightbulb. But Tim Harford's Fifty...","url":"https://time.com/4931065/fifty-inventions-that-shaped-the-modern-economy-review/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd189a7e2c7cb7423/6988dcbefb4eac31c08939da/history-best-overlooked-inventions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd189a7e2c7cb7423/6988dcbefb4eac31c08939da/history-best-overlooked-inventions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"History-best-overlooked-inventions","caption":"Fifty Inventions That Shaped The Modern Economy book cover","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4931065/fifty-inventions-that-shaped-the-modern-economy-review/","name":"History's Best Overlooked Inventions"}}]}] ```