Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to The Invention of News: How the World Came to Know About Itself

Andrew Pettegree tells us how the news spread before print

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. The Invention of News: How the World Came to Know About Itself launched in 2016; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1. 1
   The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood▲67

   Where the big ideas of the modern era came from

   2016 · amazon.com · its alternatives →

2. 2
   Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to▲66

   Information, networks, complexity to understand Economics

   2015 · amazon.com · its alternatives →

3. 3
   The Signal and the Noise▲73

   Why so many predictions fail - but some don't

   2015 · amazon.com · its alternatives →

4. 4
   How We Learn▲64

   The surprising truth about when, where, and why it happens

   2016 · amazon.com · its alternatives →

5. 5
   Bloomberg by Bloomberg▲66

   How Michael Bloomberg created a media empire

   2015 · amazon.com · its alternatives →

6. 6
   Little Bets▲89

   How breakthrough ideas emerge from small discoveries

   2015 · amazon.com · its alternatives →

7. 7
   informed news: summaries▲170

   Get the news you need, no matter how much time you have.

   2023 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

8. 8
   informed news▲356

   The news, curated

   2023 · its alternatives →

9. 9
   Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator▲83

   The inside mechanics of how blogs & news are made.

   2015 · amazon.com · its alternatives →

10. 10
    Fooled By Randomness ▲105

    The hidden role of chance in life and markets

    2015 · amazon.com · its alternatives →

11. 11
    The Outline▲226

    A new kind of publication for a new kind of human

    2016 · theoutline.com · its alternatives →

12. 12
    Sapiens▲185

    A brief history of humankind

    2015 · amazon.com · its alternatives →

13. 13
    News Genius▲66

    Make sense of the news

    2014 · genius.com · its alternatives →

14. 14
    Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter▲96

    How today's smartest businesses grow themselves

    2015 · amazon.com · its alternatives →

15. 15
    Inventology▲72

    How we dream up things that change the world

    2016 · amazon.com · its alternatives →

16. 16
    Understanding Media▲70

    The Extensions of Man

    2016 · amazon.com · its alternatives →

17. 17
    Vox▲124

    Understand the news.

    2014 · vox.com · its alternatives →

18. 18
    The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human▲63

    A unified theory about why storytelling evolved

    2015 · amazon.com · its alternatives →

19. 19
    The Memo▲91

    A new online publication for people curious about the future

    2015 · account.forbes.com · its alternatives →

20. 20
    Where Good Ideas Come From▲79

    The natural history of innovation

    2015 · amazon.com · its alternatives →

21. 21
    The Master Switch▲71

    : The Rise and Fall of Information Empires

    2015 · amazon.com · its alternatives →

22. 22
    The Sociable▲93

    Documenting how technology transforms societies

    2017 · sociable.co · its alternatives →

23. 23
    Predictably Irrational▲96

    The hidden forces that shape our decisions

    2015 · amazon.com · its alternatives →

24. 24
    Decoded▲62

    The science behind why we buy

    2015 · amazon.com · its alternatives →

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →