From the Ferris wheel to the integrated circuit, feats of
engineering have changed our environment in countless ways, big and
small. In Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering, Duke
University's Henry Petroski focuses on the big: Malaysia's
1,482-foot Petronas Towers as well as the Panama Canal, a cut
through the continental divide that required the excavation of 311
million cubic yards of earth.
Remaking the World tells the stories behind the man-made wonders
of the world, from squabbles over the naming of the Hoover Dam to
the effects the Titanic disaster had on the engineering community
of 1912. Here, too, are the stories of the
personalities behind the wonders, from the jaunty Isambard
Kingdom Brunel, designer of nineteenth-century transatlantic
steamships, to Charles Steinmetz, oddball genius of the General
Electric Company, whose office of preference was a battered
twelve-foot canoe. Spirited and absorbing, Remaking the World is a
celebration of the creative instinct and of the men and women whose
inspirations have immeasurably improved our world.