Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century [Hardcover]

Gregg Pascal Zachary (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 3, 1997

In the 20th - the American - Century, no visionary stands taller than Vannevar Bush. As the inventor and public entrepreneur who launched the Manhattan Project, helped to create the military-industrial complex, conceived of a permanent system of government support for science and engineering and anticipated the personal computer and the Internet, Bush is our century's reincarnation of Ben Franklin. Beginning with his boyhood as a turn-of-the-century tinkerer in his father's basement in Massachusetts, Bush went on to study and teach electrical engineering at Tufts and MIT. An early academic entrepreneur, he cofounded Raytheon, a highly successful electronics company, in his spare time. At MIT, during the Depression, he built what were then the most powerful computers in the world. During World War II, he was Roosevelt's adviser and chief contact on all matters of military technology, including the atomic bomb. He launched the Manhattan Project and oversaw a collection of 6,000 civilian scientists who designed scores of new weapons. When an Allied victory seemed inevitable, his attention turned to the future. In July 1945 he published his legendary essay, "As We May Think, " widely cited as the inspiration for the personal computer and the World Wide Web. In his landmark "Endless Frontier" report, published only weeks later, he boldly equated national security with research strength, outlining a system of permanent federal funding for university research that endures to this day.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

FDR's director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II, a gifted mathematician and engineer, a prophet of the Manhattan Project and the Internet, a founder of the Raytheon Company, soul of the modern organization man?Vannevar Bush firmly established and maintained the seminal linchpin between the resources of the civilian scientific community and the needs of an ever-hungry military backed by the largesse of the federal government. Zachary, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, labors extensively to reconstruct the prodigious life of this "patron saint of American science, 'one of the most important men in America,'" in light of the puzzling truth that his subject is virtually forgotten today. Cloyingly praiseful, Zachary uses extensive detail to create an apotheosis of a hero who brought science and the centralized organization to bear on winning the war and establishing the modern public-private partnership. With over 70 pages of end notes, bibliography, abbreviations, and index; recommended for academic and large public libraries.?Robert C. Ballou, Atlanta
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Bush's seminal essay "As We May Think," which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in 1945, may seem quaint today, but not too long ago it was required reading for budding library and information scientists. In it Bush envisioned automated information retrieval and a complex device called the Memex, and for that he has gained a place in history. Zachary is a Wall Street Journal reporter and author of Show-Stopper (1994), an account of Microsoft's efforts to create Windows NT. He has been researching Bush's life for more than 10 years, and his effort has paid off here. Zachary calls Bush "the most politically powerful inventor since Benjamin Franklin." He documents Bush's many inventions and patents and his contributions at MIT and the Carnegie Institution. He details Bush's roles with the National Defense Research Committee and the Office of Scientific Research and Development, where Bush helped create what has become known as the military-industrial complex by heading the research effort that united science with the military and helped win World War II. David Rouse

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Free Press; 1st ed edition (September 3, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684828219
• ISBN-13: 978-0684828213
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #706,306 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vannevar like beaver, July 5, 2000

By 

Harvey M. Solomon - See all my reviews

This review is from: Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century (Paperback)

This is a very well written and entertaining book about a scientific administrator who played a major effort in organizing the technical responses required to anticipate and successfully meet the challenges of WWII. His skillful analysis, technical comprehension and political astuteness not only provided outstanding leadership at the time but shaped the intractions of goverment, industry and the academic community in such a fashion as to remain intact to this time. One comes awawy with an enormous respect for Dr. Bush. He must have been one tough character and difficult to deal with but he got the jobs done. It is a pity that his battles with Admiral Ernest King have, to my knowledge, never been documented. The issues they disagreed about were not trivial and their interactions must have been awesome. I read this book shortly after completing Tycho's Island and the similarity between the two men and the administrative issues they dealt with is both striking and illuminating.

Good men are hard to find and good books about them deserve our attention.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Biography of great scientific leader and public servant, May 10, 2006

By 

F. R Anscombe (Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century (Paperback)

Zachary deserves great credit for writing a book that offers many virtues and lessons of lasting relevance. Because the author's commitment is worthy of his subject, this book should have timeless value. The roles for science and technology and how best to harness them for prosperity and for security to enable the preservation of peace are questions which transcend any particular time.

The subtitle, Engineer of the American Century, is justified. Bush contributed to American society in many ways. He was a fecund, tireless inventor, helping launch Raytheon Corporation. He was dedicated to boosting the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and thereby strengthening society through teaching and seeking practical knowledge. He was a pioneer and convenor of advances in computing.

Clear-mindedly appreciating the gathering evil of Nazi Germany, Bush decided to do something, as typical. He left MIT and got to Washington as head of the Carnegie Institution. Though a Republican, he persuaded President Franklin Roosevelt that those who were technically educated needed to be harnessed within a National Defense Research Committee, in service to their nation's needs. By helping harness the extraordinary abilities of civilian and academic technologists to serve their nation in meeting the challenges of World War II, Bush helped unleash a cornucopia of inventions and advances in thinking, with extraordinary economic legacies (computing, electronics, medicine, radar).

A few words from Zachary:
--Bush's "was a life not of looking back, but of charging ahead."
--He had a "commitment to excellence and integrity that reinforced his belief in the power of one person to make a difference."
--"Bush shared Eisenhower's unease about the alliance between academia, the military, and industry"
--"The proliferation of nuclear weapons, the rise of environmental hazards, and the evident political partisanship of many scientists - all combined to engender a cynicism in the public about the aims and evidence of science."

Several other books of possible interest in relation to the contributions of technologists:
Philip Taubman, Secret Empire (2003)
James Phinney Baxter, Scientists Against Time (1946)
Biographies of Edwin Land
James Killian, Sputniks, Scientists, and Eisenhower (1977). Killian was a 1950s Bush, down to earth and his book is movingly endowed with wisdom.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent biography of an important but little known man., May 6, 1998

By 

Glenn H. Reynolds - See all my reviews

This review is from: Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century (Hardcover)

A very interesting and thorough biography of Vannevar Bush, who more than any other individual is responsible (for good or for ill) for the shape of today's scientific establishment. Well-written and engaging, with lots of interesting historical tidbits and good insight on the personalities involved. Excellent!