Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering [Hardcover]

Henry Petroski (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0375400419 | ISBN-13: 978-0375400414 | Publication Date: December 29, 1997 | Edition: First Edition

This collection of informative and pleasurable essays by Henry Petroski elucidates the role of engineers in shaping our environment in countless ways, big and small.

In Remaking the World Petroski gravitates this time, perhaps, toward the big: the English Channel tunnel, the Panama Canal, Hoover Dam, the QE2, and the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia, now the tallest buildings in the world. He profiles Charles Steinmetz, the genius of the General Electric Company; Henry Martyn Robert, a military engineer who created Robert's Rules of Order; and James Nasmyth, the Scotsman whose machine tools helped shape nineteenth-century ocean and rail transportation. Petroski sifts through the fossils of technology for cautionary tales and remarkable twists of fortune, and reminds us that failure is often a necessary step on the path to new discoveries. He explains soil mechanics by way of a game of  "rock, scissors, paper," and clarifies fundamental principles of engineering through the spokes of a Ferris wheel.

Most of all, Henry Petroski continues to celebrate the men and women whose scrawls on the backs of envelopes have immeasurably improved our world.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Engineers, Henry Petroski observes, are sometimes their own worst enemies, at least so far as communicating their work to the general public is concerned. Some engineers, of course, have been exceptions. One of the unlikely heroes of Petroski's Remaking the World, an entertaining foray into some of engineering's finest (and, on occasion, less exalted) moments, is Karl August Rudolf Steinmetz, who combined a great talent for design and engineering with a keenly practiced flair for self-promotion. Another is Washington Gale Ferris, the inventor of the Ferris wheel, who concocted several dangerous eyesores before arriving at the design familiar to amusement-park patrons.

Successful at explaining themselves or not, engineers are largely responsible for the world as we know it, and Petroski examines their work to discuss how good design and technology combine to produce the desired results. That combination involves much trial and error, and, as Petroski writes, "artifacts from paper clips to steamships evolve by removing some real or perceived failure of their ancestors to achieve unqualified success." Drawing on examples from past and present, Petroski offers an up-close view of how engineers do their work, and his history is full of surprises and pleasures. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

Petroski, perhaps best known for The Pencil (LJ 3/1/90) and The Evolution of Useful Things (LJ 12/92), here collects columns written originally as essays for American Scientist, an engineering society publication. As such, the 18 selections, aimed at raising the reader's consciousness about how important and far-reaching engineering is to civilization and society, are accessible to a lay readers with an interest in technology and society. Several pieces are about particular engineers (e.g., Henry Robert, who wrote the Rules of Order, was first a military engineer) or engineering projects (the Channel Tunnel, the Ferris Wheel); others are provocative (the flaws of engineering software, the creep of technology). Always well written, though seldom off the "engineering is crucial!" soapbox, this is an excellent choice for general collections with a literate readership interested in technology?and a good gift for the engineers on your Christmas list.?Mark L. Shelton, Univ. of Massachusetts Medical Ctr., Worcester
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 239 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; First Edition edition (December 29, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375400419
• ISBN-13: 978-0375400414
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #458,742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Henry Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of history at Duke University. The author of more than a dozen previous books, he lives in Durham, North Carolina, and Arrowsic, Maine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars For Petroski Fans Only, July 15, 2001

By 

S. Robertson (Tucson, Arizona USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering (Hardcover)

This is a collection of articles written for Petrowski's monthly column in American Scientist magazine. Many are brief biographies of 19th-century engineers; a (very) few look (very) briefly at particular pieces of historical engineering (an article on the Ferris wheel is probably the best); others are ruminations on such hazards of the engineering practice as the stress that keeps them up at night and their failure to be awarded Nobel prizes. These seem quite satisfactory articles for a magazine column but they are slender stuff for a book. And Petroski's tendency to return to the same subjects, pardonable in a monthly column, becomes repetitive when the columns are collected. All but die-hard Petroski fans can skip this one

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Read, July 9, 1998

By 

Jim T - See all my reviews

This review is from: Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering (Hardcover)

This is a fine tome about engineering for those of us who scraped thru algebra! Should be required reading for *every* high school student. It gives a lot of basic information in understandable writing. Such as how did radio get to where it is today. Because of yacht racing... Now if that doesn't tease the brain, I don't know what else will...

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Spendid short essays - (a must for any Petroski fan), April 19, 1998

By 

from the US "orwellian" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering (Hardcover)

I'm like those awful teachers who rarely give "10s" (although Petroski's The Pencil would get a 10!) Despite his protestation that these are slightly altered essays for the "American Engineer", as I recall, - he'd be hurt to realize that it's not common reading for most of us. For me it was all new territory - not covered in prior Petroski books and full of the interesting mix of social history and engineering history that he does so well. The order is arbitrary - except for the first chapter which is a bit autobiographical and perhaps should be read first - but I mostly skipped to topics I felt like reading and did them in my own order. My only criticisms are that a) the essays have some but could have used a bit more visuals - diagrams or photographs and b) many chapters - maybe not all but many - could easily have supported treatment at greater length. But I am a very tough grader. Also maybe at hardcover prices the publisher could be chided for not including more of the colums, this is a selection from thirty or so - and I doubt that Petroski was the parsimonious one! (but you can grab it while Amazon.com has it at 30% off) Its definitely nice to have this collection of columns from a journal I don't ever see, wrapped up in one volume.