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The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention Paperback – March 15, 2012

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William Rosen (Author)
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4.4 out of 5 stars 97 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 376 pages
  • Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; Reprint edition (March 15, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 9780226726342
  • ISBN-13: 978-0226726342
  • ASIN: 0226726347
  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.3 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (97 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #430,603 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsOne of history's great hinge moments
By Watt on July 28, 2010
Format: Hardcover
This book is about a major turning point in human history, and why it happened. By most measures of human advancement, the world pretty much stayed the same between the second and eighteenth centuries, and then something happened. Rosen tackles a question that has obsessed historians ever since--why it happened in England in the 18th c. The book is worth reading because Rosen is a good writer, both in terms of storytelling and explaining science, technology, and law, and because the book will help you to understand how societies can encourage innovation and therefore growth. If I had a complaint, it's that the author is so into his story that he occasionally followed tributaries that I didn't find interesting. But I found it pretty easy to skip over those parts without losing the thread.
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3.0 out of 5 starsSome Positive Features - Some Shortcomings
By George Poirier on June 14, 2010
Format: Hardcover
The amount of information contained in this book is truly astounding. Just about every aspect of inventing that one can imagine is touched upon here, at least to some degree. These include but are not limited to: legal issues, social and political matters, psychology, even religion and philosophy. The reader is also introduced to a myriad of people who have contributed, in some way or other, to the Industrial Revolution. The most significant invention that is followed throughout is the steam engine. But many other inventions are also discussed such as: devices to address certain mining problems, making various types of iron, collecting and processing cotton and silk, various devices to improve upon prior inventions, etc. The amount of information contained in this book is truly encyclopaedic; the author's efforts in putting it all together must have been astronomical.

Unfortunately, despite all of these positive features, the book was not at all what I expected. I assumed that a book recounting the history of the steam engine would be rich in technical detail - either with plenty of illustrative sketches to complement the text or written in prose so rich in detail that sketches would be unnecessary; unfortunately I misjudged. The technical details that are given in the text are, in too many cases, much too brief to allow a technical reader to get a good appreciation of how a given device worked or what the technical issues were. And the few sketches that are included (nine in the entire book) are reproductions from centuries ago and do not add much to help the reader's technical comprehension. In addition, I found that the great many individuals that are introduced throughout, along with their contributions, eventually become hard to keep track of.Read more ›
3 Comments 98 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
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3.0 out of 5 starsa fun read from an unreliable narrator
By emilia_bassano on October 16, 2012
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Others have given an general overview of this book; no need to repeat that. Several have noted that if you are interested in steam engines, this book won't help you to understand them. A major flaw is the lack of explanatory drawings and diagrams to supplement the original drawings from patent applications. But this isn't a book about how steam engines work, so that lack can be forgiven. What can't are the errors in fact. I was reading happily along, marvelling at the toys of Alexandrian and enjoying the sweeping scope of the narrative, until we rolled into the Elizabethan period, an era I happen to know something about. There the train drove right off the tracks. The capsule biography of Francis Bacon is not just wrong, it's bizarrely, stupefyingly wrong. Rosen must have copied it from one of the Rosicrucian websites he rightly makes fun of in a footnote. He cites the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for his Bacon data, but that article is, of course, perfectly correct. OK, it's just one short biography, not central (quite) to the theme of the book, but it is so egregiously bad that the author's credibility evaporated in a flash. Francis Bacon is a major historical figure. If his bio is wrong, why should I believe the stories about George Stephenson or the more minor contributors to the development of early steam engines? From that point forward, I started skimming and taking it all with a grain of salt. The central thesis - that copyright/patent law was essential to the industrial revolution - is interesting. But I'll have to read another book to actually learn about the inventors and inventions mentioned in this one.
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5.0 out of 5 starsRead the reviews carefully
By C. Hawkins on July 29, 2010
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
I got pulled into this by a friend. We had liked Rosen's earlier book: Justinian's Flea Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe. His new book brings the same, easy to read style to another history subject. Just reading the first chapter got me right away. You can read the other reviews here...

But what really bothers me is that several people have voted only one stars on this book. They are not voting on the quality of the read, but on the pricing of the book by the publisher for the electronic version. Well, I bought the electronic version, and I saved money verses the hardcover. Yes, it is higher than many e-books, but that is not the fault of the author. Come on, rate the book on its merit.
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5.0 out of 5 starsA Story of Discovery and Progress
By Crosslands on September 18, 2010
Format: Hardcover
Mr. Rosen has written a very interesting and well written book on the invention and improvement of the steam engine. Basically Mr. Rosen covers the period form the seventeenth century to the first part of the eighteenth century. Mr. Rosen ends his discussion with the development of the Rocket steam locomotive by George and Robert Stephenson and Richard Trevithick.

Mr. Rosen demonstrates that the social and legal climate in England in this period favored new inventions. The legal system, in part due to the efforts of jurist Edward Coke, protected intellectual property by patent rights. Thus inventors were much less likely to have their ideas and products stolen by other men who had done nothing to develop the invention. Thus inventors could prosper materially as well as socially from their efforts. Moreover inventing new techniques and new products was socially acceptable.

The result was that inventions occurred more and more often over the time interval. And new inventions in one product field added to the demand for and encouraged inventions in other fields. For example John Wilkinson's method of boring iron tubes greatly enhanced the production of steam engine equipment. Numerous other inventions fed the development of steam power.

Mr. Rosen goes into great and interesting detail about the inventors and inventions. For example, Mr. Rosen provides much detail on the life of James Watt, his birth near Glasgow Scotland, his work as a clockmaker and instrument maker in London, his study of the Newcomen steam engine, his new steam engine with a separate condenser and use of vacuum space, and his fertile partnership with Matthew Boulton. Mr.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

Very good

Published 7 days ago by Jostein Moen
5.0 out of 5 starsand not so scholarly that a reader with no previous knowledge of the...

Well written, well researched, and not so scholarly that a reader with no previous knowledge of the history of steam power can't pick it up and enjoy it. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Baccaruda
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat reference - will not speak to author's storytelling/narrative as...

Got as a reference regarding the time, so it's great there, full of good info. Will not speak to the author's narrative or perspective/storytelling because that wasn't my intent.

Published 1 month ago by Seattle Person Who Loves Anime and Classic Film
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

Good read for the technical/mechanical types but gets a little too detailed and off track at times.

Published 1 month ago by hayley warshauer
5.0 out of 5 starsPuff, puff

My great grandfather ran a steam plant when he immigrated to America. This explained to me the importance of this energy source. It was plainly written and mostly comprehensive. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Sadly wiser
5.0 out of 5 starsMy brother was disappointed it because there was not enough mechanical

An very interesting history of the development of the steam engine and its application and the legal (intelletual property) and social enviourment of the times. Read more

Published 6 months ago by S Devlin
3.0 out of 5 starssomewhat interesting, poorly written, dubious thesis

+ This has enough factoids to be moderately interesting.
- Terrible writing.
- Overall thesis (that patent law made the industrial revolution) is broken and poorly... Read more

Published 12 months ago by jacob
4.0 out of 5 starsThis book is an attempt to give a reply to ...

This book is an attempt to give a reply to a complex question: why the Industrial Revolution started in England between the 18th and the 19th century and not in another place or in... Read more

Published 13 months ago by Marco Costanzi
5.0 out of 5 starsThis book explains why that idea was brilliant and how it was...

The "idea" of patent protection is in the US constitution. This book explains why that idea was brilliant and how it was sustained, even against "nay sayers."

Published 14 months ago by David Vandor
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat read

The story of invention and the industrial revolution. I learned something new with each chapter.. You won't be able to put it down.

Published 16 months ago by truittjs

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