Preface
Part I: Priority and Aprioity
Part II: Steam and Speed
Part III: Writing and Showing
Part IV: Views Through a Wider Lens
Notes
Illustration Credits
Index
John H. Lienhard is M.D. Anderson Professor Emeritus of Mechanical
Engineering and of History at the University of Houston. He is the
author and host of "The Engines of Our Ingenuity," a daily radio
essay on invention and creativity heard nationally on Public Radio
and internationally on the Armed Forces Network. He is also the
author of the book The Engines of Our Ingenuity: An Engineer Looks
at Technology and Culture.
Books by the same author: Inventing Modern
The Engines of Our Ingenuity
"Watt's genius was in devising a practical engine; Lienhard's
genius is in telling the real story of invention."--New Scientist
Magazine
"Lienhard is enthralled with invention, how it happens and how
inventions both shape and are shaped by culture. He posits that the
quest for a single canonical inventor of a new technology is
illusory, because all inventions are the sum of many contributors.
To make his point, Lienhard (host of public radio's The Engines of
Our Ingenuity) traces the development of airplanes and steam
engines, among other technologies, in a lucid style filled with
interesting forays into origins and biography.... The author's
personality permeates his writing, and it's impossible not to
admire his optimism, his far-reaching knowledge and his enthusiasm
for
learning."--Publishers Weekly
"Lienhard, a graceful and perceptive writer, has produced a popular
book that may well seduce the general public away from received
hero myths without denigrating those myths."--Technology and
Culture
"Watt's genius was in devising a practical engine; Lienhard's genius is in telling the real story of invention."--New Scientist Magazine "Lienhard is enthralled with invention, how it happens and how inventions both shape and are shaped by culture. He posits that the quest for a single canonical inventor of a new technology is illusory, because all inventions are the sum of many contributors. To make his point, Lienhard (host of public radio's The Engines of Our Ingenuity) traces the development of airplanes and steam engines, among other technologies, in a lucid style filled with interesting forays into origins and biography.... The author's personality permeates his writing, and it's impossible not to admire his optimism, his far-reaching knowledge and his enthusiasm for learning."--Publishers Weekly "Lienhard, a graceful and perceptive writer, has produced a popular book that may well seduce the general public away from received hero myths without denigrating those myths."--Technology and Culture
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