Customer Reviews

Great Feuds in Technology: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Most of us accept as a fact that Morse invented the telegraph and the Wright Brothers the airplane. Great Feuds in Technology opens your eyes to how controversial credits for developing these and other technologies were in the past and how some of them have not been settled even today. It also tells about disputes, such as the long-lasting one that Henry Ford had over a patent on the automobile, that had an enormous effect on how the technology and industry developed. Another outcome could have made the world we live in today quite a different place. The book ranges from technologies that are now obsolete, such as the miners' safety lamp, through the electric power industry, television, and to the currently controversial topic of genetic engineering. I was sorry when I came to the end of it.

Enjoyable book about some topics of which I had little knowledge. Even the areas in which I had heard about the conflicts, the author did a nice job of summarizing the feuds. Quick read---I think I read the whole book during a long weekend conference (airports/planes/free time). Would recommend the other titles in this series as well.

The book start from the Luddite and end into the current biotech world. There is a lesson that the author wanted to share in this book. That is the Luddite is not phoebe about technology. It is more about economy. The end of the chapter, chapter 10, however, has a deep meaning. It would, in my opinion, describe a true Luddite, phoebe about technology. The last chapter is about genetic modification.

I really like reading from chapter 2 to 7, but I don't like the rest of the chapter. I plan at first to give this book a 5 star, then after reading half of chapter 9, I began to sense this book has a deep meaning about technology. I don't like a very sad ending. So I subtract another star after I find out that, in my opinion, the other really good chapter about technology invention, the telegraphy, the television and other great invention is used as a tool by the author to show the true but sad ending.

I would still recommand that you buy and read this book.