History of engineering and technology Books
MIT Press Ltd Adjusted Margin Xerography Art and Activism in
Book SynopsisHow xerography became a creative medium and political tool, arming artists and activists on the margins with an accessible means of making their messages public. This is the story of how the xerographic copier, or “Xerox machine,” became a creative medium for artists and activists during the last few decades of the twentieth century. Paper jams, mangled pages, and even fires made early versions of this clunky office machine a source of fear, rage, dread, and disappointment. But eventually, xerography democratized print culture by making it convenient and affordable for renegade publishers, zinesters, artists, punks, anarchists, queers, feminists, street activists, and others to publish their work and to get their messages out on the street. The xerographic copier adjusted the lived and imagined margins of society, Eichhorn argues, by supporting artistic and political expression and mobilizing subcultural movements. Eichhorn describes early efforts to use xe
£16.19
MIT Press Ltd Spaceflight
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£15.29
MIT Press Ltd Fertility Technology
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£14.39
MIT Press Ltd Human Frontiers
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£16.96
MIT Press Ltd Artificial Intelligence
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£23.96
WW Norton & Co The Human Age The World Shaped by Us
Book SynopsisAs Diane Ackerman writes in her brilliant new book, The Human Age, our relationship with nature has changed radically, irreversibly, but by no means all for the bad. Our new epoch is laced with invention. Our mistakes are legion, but our talent is immeasurable.Trade Review"An ode to the planet we’ve created for ourselves… Rarely grim, and the overwhelming spirit is one of relentless optimism." -- Nathanial Rich - New York Times"[Ackerman] raises the bar for her peers…her penetrating insight is a joy to behold." -- Publishers Weekly, Starred review"Ackerman has established herself over the last quarter of a century as one of our most adventurous, charismatic, and engrossing public science writers…she has demonstrated a rare versatility, a contagious curiosity, and a gift for painting quick, memorable tableaus drawn from research across a panoply of disciplines. The Human Age displays all of these alluring qualities…The Human Age is a dazzling achievement: immensely readable, lively, polymathic, audacious." -- Rob Nixon - New York Times Book Review"Diane Ackerman’s vivid writing, inexhaustible stock of insights, and unquenchable optimism have established her as a national treasure, and as one of our great authors. You’re now about to become addicted to Diane Ackerman." -- Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel and The World Until Yesterday"In this amazingly illuminating book, Diane Ackerman explains our future with her typically intoxicating blend of scholarship, wisdom, grace and humor." -- Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies"Diane Ackerman writes with brilliance, zest, and high style. In a difficult time, we need to hear this voice of human affirmation. It's important. It matters. I read The Human Age and thought, Yes! This is the way to look ahead." -- Jonathan Weiner, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Beak of the Finch and Long for this World"The Human Age allows us to consider whether or not we will accept destruction or restoration as our legacy. I cannot imagine a richer text of image and insight, rendered with grace, intelligence and stamina." -- Terry Tempest Williams, author of When Women Were Birds"With this stirringly vivid, darkbright manifesto, Diane Ackerman summons us to the wager of sheer possibility: life against death, delight still (if only just barely) trouncing despair." -- Lawrence Weschler, author of Everything that Rises, Pulitzer Prize finalist"A book to dip around in—skimming some parts and perusing others with care—as your interest guides you, enjoying Ackerman’s profound sense of mind play as you go." -- Ben Dickinson - Elle"A hard look at the impact that humans have had on Earth… thought provoking." -- Kyle Anderson - Entertainment Weekly"Fascinating… Ackerman offers a cross-cultural tour of human ingenuity … Her words invite us to feel the hope she feels." -- Barbara J. King - Washington Post"Part immersion memoir and part journalism… The Human Age is also many parts poetry." -- Beth Kephart - Chicago Tribune"[A] thought-provoking analysis of our connection to the earth… A lens that magnifies and clarifies the fascinating, far-reaching effects humans have had on our planet and ourselves." -- Lee E. Cart - Shelf Awareness"Ackerman is a gorgeous writer and perceptive observer. Here she writes with great empathy about the human plight." -- Kate Tuttle - Boston Globe"A humdinger of a book… Ackerman is optimistic, even exhilarated, and frequently giddy about the future of humanity." -- Jon Christensen - San Francisco Chronicle"Exquisite and startling." -- Tim Flannery - Harper's Magazine
£20.89
WW Norton & Co The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City
Book Synopsis"A marvelous recounting of the 1901 World’s Fair. Every chapter sparkles…The Buffalo-Niagara Falls extravaganza comes alive in these pages. Highly recommended!" —Douglas Brinkley, author of American MoonshotTrade Review"Wonderfully informative, evocative, illuminating." -- Buffalo News"A delightful read." -- Portland Press Herald"Lively." -- Christian Science Monitor"Required reading." -- New York Post"Engrossing…Creighton skillfully maintains objectivity, showing the good and the bad, the fair’s pageantry as well as its seedy underbelly." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Creighton shines." -- Booklist"While perhaps not quite as well known as the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, was equally full of drama and intrigue…The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City is the compelling story of an event that sparked technological advances and spurred new perspectives on social equality and race." -- Becky Diamond - BookPage"A propulsive, edge-of-your-seat ride." -- Lauren Belfer, author of And After the Fire"Utterly electrifying prose." -- Martha Hodes, author of Mourning Lincoln"An extraordinary portrait of the event… great storytelling and painterly in its color and detail." -- Mark Goldman, author of High Hopes and City on the Edge
£12.99
WW Norton & Co Are We There Yet
Book Synopsis“[Dan Albert] has a way of bringing automotive history to life.” —Jason Fogelson, ForbesTrade Review"From the ‘in honor and in loving memory of’ dedication at the beginning to the final car crash at the end, [Dan] Albert never loses his clever, addictively readable voice." -- Jeva Lange - Week"The classic title hints at this witty take on the history, and future, of the American automobile." -- Jane Henderson - St. Louis Post-Dispatch"No matter what the future holds, you’ll be better prepared to understand, engage with and even shape it after you read Are We There Yet?" -- Edward Niedermeyer - Drive"Dan Albert is a unique voice in American letters—a historian of the car and its culture with a driver’s passion and a sense of the absurd. His wise, funny, erudite tour of the American car and road is part memoir, part history, part polemic. All of it is necessary. It’s like taking a long drive through the twentieth century with someone who can actually identify the sights." -- Keith Gessen, author of A Terrible Country"Written in a witty and infectious style, Are We There Yet? is a briskly paced guided tour of the economic, political, geographic, environmental, and aspirational influences cars have had on Americans, and vice versa. Dan Albert makes this history interesting and relevant in its own right while showing how it bears directly on the most recent automotive frontier: the much-anticipated driverless car. He reminds us how fundamentally intertwined the automobile, the built environment, and human nature have been, and that they will remain so for the foreseeable future." -- Kevin L. Borg, author of Auto Mechanics: Technology and Expertise in Twentieth-Century America"From Henry Ford to Elon Musk, from seat belts to self-driving cars, Dan Albert takes us on a kaleidoscopic tour of the automobile’s evolution, showing us how the future of transportation cannot be understood without investigating the past." -- Nathan Bomey, author of Detroit Resurrected: To Bankruptcy and Back"[Albert’s] prose is witty and smart, self-effacing and erudite.… An extremely engaging work of narrative nonfiction for those who enjoy popular historical and technology reads." -- Library Journal (starred review)"This is a perfect narrative for gearheads, but those who spend time behind the wheel will also surely enjoy the ride." -- Publishers Weekly
£13.29
WW Norton & Co A Dominant Character
Book SynopsisOne of the Wall Street Journal's 10 Best Books of 2020 One of the New York Times's 100 Notable Books of 2020 A biography of J. B. S. Haldane, the brilliant and eccentric British scientist whose innovative predictions inspired Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.Trade Review"Fascinating.... A Dominant Character is the best Haldane biography yet. With science so politicized in this country and abroad, the book could be an allegory for every scientist who wants to take a stand." -- Jonathan Weiner - New York Times Book Review"Samanth Subramanian is a crisp, elegant writer who has produced a compelling biography of this dazzling man. A Dominant Character is perfectly paced.... It can be read with the utmost pleasure by everyone who likes to admire a fine intellect in action and to see respect paid to outstanding intelligence." -- Richard Davenport-Hines - Wall Street Journal"Balanced and modern ... [A Dominant Character] should prove engaging to readers interested in the birth of genetics and in the intersection of science and political belief." -- P. William Hughes - Science"Astute and sympathetic." -- The Economist"Superb.... Subramanian does a masterly job of summarising a rich and rough life.... Haldane deserves a biographer who is eloquent, intelligent, fair, but unsparing and as good at explaining science as politics. Not an easy combination, but he has got one." -- Times [UK]"Excellent.... Full of insight and felicitous writing." -- David Brown - American Scholar"A wholly delightful, even brilliant, exploration of the scientific mind. Subramanian brings alive J. B. S. Haldane’s rollicking, unbelievable life journey from privileged English childhood to Indian asylum. He writes with grace and confidence about both the science and the man, a ‘Darwinian preacher’ whose life explains why scientists in our age of artificial intelligence and revolutionary genetics need to think politically. A Dominant Character is a captivating story of prickly genius, sexual scandal, and radical politics." -- Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography"The twentieth-century British geneticist J. B. S. Haldane remains one of the most influential scientists of modern times. And this remarkable biography by Samanth Subramanian, which brings to life Haldane at his brilliant, unpredictable, outspoken, visionary best, will make you see exactly why his light still shines so brightly today." -- Deborah Blum, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Poison Squad: One Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century"A wonderful book about one of the most important, brilliant, and flawed scientists of the 20th century—that explains much not only about J. B. S. Haldane but about the complex times he lived in." -- Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads"A marvelous, comprehensive, and entertaining biography of J. B. S. Haldane, who made major contributions to many fields. His biggest impact was on evolutionary biology, as a major founder of the theory of population genetics. Subramanian has done impressive research on Haldane’s background, scientific contributions, and political controversies—this will be the definitive work on his life from now on." -- Joe Felsenstein, professor emeritus of genome sciences and of biology, University of Washington
£28.79
Penguin Putnam Inc The Code
Book SynopsisOne of New York Magazine''s best books on Silicon Valley!The true, behind-the-scenes history of the people who built Silicon Valley and shaped Big Tech in America Long before Margaret O''Mara became one of our most consequential historians of the American-led digital revolution, she worked in the White House of Bill Clinton and Al Gore in the earliest days of the commercial Internet. There she saw firsthand how deeply intertwined Silicon Valley was with the federal government--and always had been--and how shallow the common understanding of the secrets of the Valley''s success actually was. Now, after almost five years of pioneering research, O''Mara has produced the definitive history of Silicon Valley for our time, the story of mavericks and visionaries, but also of powerful institutions creating the framework for innovation, from the Pentagon to Stanford University. It is also a story of a community that started off remarkably homogeneous and tight-knit and stayed that way, and whose belief in its own mythology has deepened into a collective hubris that has led to astonishing triumphs as well as devastating second-order effects.Deploying a wonderfully rich and diverse cast of protagonists, from the justly famous to the unjustly obscure, across four generations of explosive growth in the Valley, from the forties to the present, O''Mara has wrestled one of the most fateful developments in modern American history into magnificent narrative form. She is on the ground with all of the key tech companies, chronicling the evolution in their offerings through each successive era, and she has a profound fingertip feel for the politics of the sector and its relation to the larger cultural narrative about tech as it has evolved over the years. Perhaps most impressive, O''Mara has penetrated the inner kingdom of tech venture capital firms, the insular and still remarkably old-boy world that became the cockpit of American capitalism and the crucible for bringing technological innovation to market, or not. The transformation of big tech into the engine room of the American economy and the nexus of so many of our hopes and dreams--and, increasingly, our nightmares--can be understood, in Margaret O''Mara''s masterful hands, as the story of one California valley. As her majestic history makes clear, its fate is the fate of us all.
£19.95
Penguin Putnam Inc Spycraft
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£18.70
Basic Books Consider the Fork
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Reading [Consider the Fork] is like having a long dinner table discussion with a fascinating friend... Leisurely but lively...a pure joy to read." --Los Angeles Times "Delightful... [An] ebulliently written and unobtrusively learned survey." --Harper's Magazine "[A] sparkling...fascinating and entertaining book." --The Sunday Times (London) "One part science, one part history, and a generous dash of fun." --Good Housekeeping "Wilson's insouciant scholarship and companionable voice convince you she would be great fun to spend time with in the kitchen... [She is] a congenial kitchen oracle." --New York Times Book Review "Fluid yet engaging, just like a good conversation over a pan of sizzling vegetables." --New Republic "A delightfully informative history of cooking and eating." --ELLE Magazine "Wilson is a good tour guide... [A] dizzying, entertaining ride." --Wall Street Journal "A book to savour... You will never look at a kitchen knife in the same way again." --The Independent (London)
£18.04
Penguin Putnam Inc Power Failure
Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERThe New Yorker Best Books of 2022 • Financial Times Best Books of 2022 • The Economist Best Books of 2022The dramatic rise—and unimaginable fall—of America''s most iconic corporation by New York Times bestselling author and pre-eminent financial journalist William D. CohanNo company embodied American ingenuity, innovation, and industrial power more spectacularly and more consistently than the General Electric Company. GE once developed and manufactured many of the inventions we take for granted today, nearly everything from the lightbulb to the jet engine. GE also built a cult of financial and leadership success envied across the globe and became the world’s most valuable and most admired company. But even at the height of its prestige and influence, cracks were forming in its formidable foundation.In a masterful re-appraisal of a company that on
£32.00
Random House USA Inc Devotion Movie Tiein
Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ? NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE ? From America?s ?forgotten war? in Korea comes an unforgettable tale of courage by theauthor of A Higher Call. ?In the spirit of Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat comes Devotion.??Associated Press ? ?Aerial drama at its best?fast, powerful, and moving.??Erik LarsonDevotion tells the inspirational story of the U.S. Navy?s most famous aviation duo, Lieutenant Tom Hudner and Ensign Jesse Brown, and the Marines they fought to defend. A white New Englander from the country-club scene, Tom passed up Harvard to fly fighters for his country. An African American sharecropper?s son from Mississippi, Jesse became the navy?s first Black carrier pilot, defending a nation that wouldn?t even serve him in a bar. While much of America remained divided by segregation, Jesse and Tom joined forces as wingmen in Fighter Squadron 32. Adam Makos takes us into the cockpit as these bold young aviators cut their teeth at the world?s most dangerous job?landing on the deck of an aircraft carrier?a line of work that Jesse?s young wife, Daisy, struggles to accept. Deployed to the Mediterranean, Tom and Jesse meet the Fleet Marines, boys like PFC ?Red? Parkinson, a farm kid from the Catskills. In between war games in the sun, the young men revel on the Riviera, partying with millionaires and even befriending the Hollywood starlet Elizabeth Taylor. Then comes the conflict that no one expected: the Korean War. Devotion takes us soaring overhead with Tom and Jesse, and into the foxholes with Red and the Marines as they battle a North Korean invasion. As the fury of the fighting escalates and the Marines are cornered at the Chosin Reservoir, Tom and Jesse fly, guns blazing, to try and save them. When one of the duo is shot down behind enemy lines and pinned in his burning plane, the other faces an unthinkable choice: watch his friend die or attempt history?s most audacious one-man rescue mission. A tug-at-the-heartstrings tale of bravery and selflessness, Devotion asks: How far would you go to save a friend?
£17.00
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Sonic Wind
Book SynopsisThe untold story of an eccentric, scientific visionary whose death-defying research has saved millions of lives.Trade Review"A beautifully presented and admiring portrait of Stapp…. Mr. Ryan demonstrates a gift for making the complex science of Stapp’s experiments understandable, and he is equally skilled at capturing the spirit of his subject." -- Patrick Cooke - Wall Street Journal"Compelling and compulsively readable…a curious but charming tale, the story of a man who courted danger—and death—in the ultimate pursuit of safety. Sonic Wind is an engrossing read, and Ryan brings his unlikely hero to life, deftly describing Stapp’s missionary zeal—inherited, presumably, from his parents—for safety." -- Emily Anthes - Washington Post"A fine, groundbreaking biography of one of aeromedical sciences’ more legendary figures." -- John Carver Edwards - Library Journal, Starred review"[The] remarkable, almost-forgotten story of an aerospace pioneer. …Ryan's full-length biography uncovers the private man, Stapp's offbeat sense of humor, his awkward love life, his passion for classical music, and his friendships with daring test pilots Chuck Yeager and Joe Kittinger, fellow trailblazers whose fame has persisted. A consistently fine appreciation of the medical maverick who, as much as any other, helped make the Space Age possible." -- Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review"Remarkable…[an] intriguing book about this unusual and mostly intriguing man." -- Michael Merschel - Dallas Morning News
£12.99
Arcadia Publishing Huntsville Air and Space Images of Aviation
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£21.24
Schiffer Publishing Ltd Gabby
Book SynopsisIf ever a man has earned his place in the annals of military history, that man is Francis Gabby Gabreski. His exploits as a fighter pilot in World War II and Korea are legendary; his rise from humble beginnings to success in military and business careers is inspiring. This is the full story of Gabby Gabreski, told in his own words. Gabreski's life is a classic American success story. Born to Polish immigrant parents in 1919, he nearly washed out of Notre Dame and then flight school. He was down to his last chance, and he made the most of it. A witness to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Gabby had his own first taste of air combat flying with a Polish RAF squadron. Shortly thereafter he joined the 56th Fighter Group of the U.S. 8th Air Force, and in seventeen months he shot down twenty-eight German planes, the highest total of any 8th Air Force pilot in Europe. He became a hero whose name was splashed across newspaper headlines from coast to coast. And then, on the very day he was t
£36.89
Schiffer Publishing Ltd MECHANICAL TYPEWRITERS Their History Value and
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£46.74
Schiffer Publishing Ltd Break Out
Book SynopsisTrade Review"David Craddock's deep dive into the origins behind some of the most important Apple II games will keep you riveted as you learn the wondrous stories of how these games came to be and how the industry started." -- John Romero, co-founder of id Software, co-designer of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake"Thanks to this excellent and thoroughly researched book, we can relive the genesis of several seminal [Apple II] games and fully appreciate the legacy this revolutionary machine had. As aptly said by Craddock in the Introduction, whatever we can think of today, 'The Apple II already did it.'" -- Dr. Roberto Dillon, Author of The Golden Age of Video Games"By going straight to the source, Craddock has shed new light on such iconic titles as Zork, The Oregon Trail, and Wizardry. Break Out is a must-own for anyone interested in the history of computers and computer games." -- Brett Weiss, author of The 100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1977-1987Break Out covers a deeply important era in game creation, marketing, and distribution that is often overlooked by even the most avid historians. Everyone who loves video games should devour this one cover-to-cover. -- Patrick Scott Patterson, video game advocate
£28.79
Johns Hopkins University Press World Trade Since 1431
Book SynopsisMoreover, he argues, major changes in transportation and communication technologies actually constituted the moments of transformation from one world economy to another.Trade ReviewA magnificent work, Braudelian in its conception, scope, and attention to detail... A delight. Progress in Human Geography. A first-rate historical study in the genre of world history... Combines geography with the social sciences in skillful fashion. It is lucidly written and will appeal to the specialist and general reader. Virginia Quarterly Review Hugill provides a refreshingly long historical sweep in arguing that transportation technologies have been the key to success in world trade... A wealth of historical and technicaldetail. Geonomics.Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsList of TablesPreface AcknowledgmentsChapter 1. Geographic Reality in the Development of CapitalismChapter 2. Technology and Geography in the Elaboration of CapitalismChapter 3. The Triumph of the ShipChapter 4. The Problem of Overland Transportation: Canals, Rivers, and RailroadsChapter 5. The Return to Overland Route Flexibility: Bicycles, Cars, Trucks, and Busses Chapter 6. Aviation and the First Global SystemChapter 7. World System Theory and Geographic RealityReferencesWorld MapsGeneral IndexIndex of Proper Names
£37.55
Johns Hopkins University Press Papermaking in EighteenthCentury France
Book SynopsisThis case study of the Montgolfier mill, adding details about technological innovation and shopfloor relations during a time of social unrest, enriches the current debate about the nature and impact of capitalism in France during the years leading up to the French Revolution.Trade ReviewA richly textured account... The benefit to Rosenband's approach is its nuance and richness of detail that allows readers to enter into the world of papermaking and to follow the peculiar logic of the culture and institutional arrangements of this industry. Those who want to experience one segment of an evolving artisanal world of work from the ground up will find much to savor. -- Gail Bossenga Journal of Interdisciplinary History While Leonard N. Rosenband's monograph is primarily a study of one mill and its enterprising owners, it can serve as an English-language introduction to the whole subject of artisanal papermaking. -- David Longfellow American Historical Review Elegantly written and well researched. -- Michael Huberman EH.Net A significant contribution to an almost unknown economic sector, papermaking... As interesting for the historian of Modern France before the Revolution as it is for the historian of the nineteenth-century economy. Both will find in Rosenband's work reliable information, deep knowledge and reflection. -- Marc de Ferriere Le Vayer Business History Papermaking in Eighteenth-Century France provides a fresh model for historians... This book poses a fundamental challange to many orthodox methods and conventional approaches in economic history and the history of technology. It raises an many questions as it answers... With any luck, it will motivate others to tend this rich and, until now, relatively unculitvated ground. -- Andre Wakefield Technology and Culture Many will profit from Rosenband's long study and clear narrative. -- James E. May Eighteenth Century: Current BibliographyTable of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsMoney, Weights, and MeasuresPart I: An Old IndustryChapter 1. French Industry in the Eighteenth CenturyChapter 2. Making PaperChapter 3. The Montgolfiers and Their CraftChapter 4. Rags, Regulation, and Government StimulationPart II: The "Modes" and the Lockout of 1781Chapter 5. Building the Beaters and the Journeymen's CustomChapter 6. The LockoutPart III: Managing to Rule Chapter 7. The New RegimeChapter 8. Hiring and FiringChapter 9. PaternalismChapter 10. WagesChapter 11. DisciplinePart IV: Measuring ChangeChapter 12. Technological TransferChapter 13. PersistenceChapter 14. AttitudesChapter 15. ProductivityChapter 16. The Hierarchy of VatsPart V: The End of Hand PapermakingChapter 17. The French Revolution and the Papermaking MachineConclusionAppendix: Tables and GraphNotesNote on SourcesIndexIllustrations Appear on Pages 16-21
£50.00
Johns Hopkins University Press Building Gotham Civic Culture and Public Policy
Book SynopsisBuilding Gotham thus demonstrates how a group of ambitious professionals overcame the limits of traditional means of decision-making and developed the city-building practices that enabled New York to become America's first mega-city.Trade ReviewAbsolutely essential reading for anyone trying to appreciate the achievements of Progressive reform-and its inadvertent consequences... A richly insightful book that will be read by anyone concerned about New York, public life, and the present state of American liberalism. -- Joel Schwartz Journal of American History An enjoyable, highly readable, and very detailed account... An excellent text for students and researchers to better understand the often unique and always complex set of issues and actors that initiated, implemented, or thwarted urban planning efforts in New York City. -- Susan Turner Meiklejohn Journal of Planning Education and Research Building Gotham documents with an insightful and unbiased eye the roles played by businesses and government in erecting the modern city's buildings, tunnels, sewers, transportation system, and the like. -- Harry Siegel New York Sun 2003 This well informed book... examines the origins of the various forms of planning New York City... [A] very exciting technical account... thorough and interesting. -- Peter Eley Urban Design Quarterly 2004 Revell, a professor of public administration, pays particular attention to the army of experts-from engineers and architects to lawyers and financiers-who solved the enormous problems that initially had the 'ambitious experiment in collective living' teetering on the brink of disaster... the message distilled by Revell from his study of bygone New York-that 'outdated notions of individualism and local autonomy' can be detrimental to solving shared problems-is sure to strike a responsive chord. Civil Engineering 2003 Deeply researched, clearly written and argued... required reading for scholars of early twentieth-century New York City. -- Angela M. Blake Urban History 2005Table of ContentsContents: Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction: Conceiving the New Metropolis: Expertise, Public Policy, and the Problem of Civis Culture in New York CityPART 1: Private Infrastructure and Public Policy 1 "The Public Be Pleased": Railroad Planning, Engineering Culture, and the Promise of Quasi-scientific Voluntarism 2 Beyond Voluntarism: The Interstate Commerce Commission, the Railroads, and Freight Planning for New York Harbor PART 2: Public Infrastructure, Local Autonomy, and Private Wealth3 Buccaneer Bureaucrats, Physical Interdependence, and Free Riders: Building the Underground City 4 Taxing, Spending, and Borrowing: Expanding Public Claims on Private Wealth PART 3: Urban Planning, Private Rights, and Public Power 5 City Planning versus the Law: Zoning the New Metropolis 6 "They shall splash at a ten-league canvas with brushes of comets' hair": Regional Planning and the Metropolitan DilemmaConclusion: "An almost mystical unity": Interdependence and the Public Interest in the Modern Metropolis Appendix Notes Index
£43.00
Johns Hopkins University Press Driving Women Fiction and Automobile Culture in
Book SynopsisBy investigating how cars can function as female space, reflect female identity, and reshape female agency, this engaging study opens up new angles from which to approach fiction by and about women and traces new directions in the intersection of literature, technology, and gender.Trade ReviewBy bringing her expertise in literature and women's studies to bear on automobility, Clarke adds to our understanding of both the lived and the imaginary potential of the automobile in women's lives. -- Kathleen Franz Technology and Culture 2008 Important work. -- Kris Lackey Studies in American Fiction 2008 Astute and thoroughly researched study. -- Laura L. Behling Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 2008Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Writing and Automobility1. Women on Wheels: "A threat at yesterday's order of things"2. Modernism: Racing and Gendering Automobility3. My Mother the Car? Auto Bodies and Maternity4. Getaway Cars: Women's Road Trips5. Mobile Homelessness: Cars and the Restructuring of Home6. Automotive Citizenship: Car as OriginEpilogue: Writing behind the WheelNotesWorks CitedIndex
£45.00
Johns Hopkins University Press Atmospheric Science at NASA A History New Series
Book SynopsisAtmospheric Science at NASA critically examines this politically controversial science, dissecting the often convoluted roles, motives, and relationships of the various institutional actors involved-among them NASA, congressional appropriation committees, government weather and climate bureaus, and the military.Trade ReviewComprehensive history... recommended. Choice As one of the latest books in the New Series in NASA History, Conway's project introduces a new aspect of space science that will be of interest to scholars of this field. -- Kristine C. Harper American Historical Review Excellent. -- Roger D. Launius QuestTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction1. Establishing the Meteorology Program2. Developing Satellite Meteorology3. Constructing a Global Meteorology4. Planetary Atmospheres5. NASA Atmospheric Research in Transition6. Atmospheric Chemistry7. The Quest for a Climate Observing System8. Missions to Planet Earth: Architectural Warfare9. Atmospheric Science in the Mission to Planet EarthConclusionEpilogueNotesIndex
£51.50
Johns Hopkins University Press Pursuing Power and Light Technology and Physics
Book SynopsisHunt translates his often-demanding material into engaging and accessible language suitable for undergraduate students of the history of science and technology.Trade ReviewHighly recommended. Choice 2010 Pursuing Power and Light is the best and most up-to-date treatment, especially for undergraduates, of the key concepts and figures of 19th-century physics. -- Robert Friedel Physics Today 2011 Essential reading both for students in engineering and the sciences and for those in HPS departments... enjoyable and very interesting reading. -- Stathis Arapostathis Metascience 2011Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: A World Transformed1. Steam and Work2. Energy and Entropy3. The Kinetic Theory: Chaos and Order4. Electricity: Currents and Networks5. Electromagnetism: Ether and Field6. Electric Power and Light7. Into a New CenturyEpilogue: Einstein at the Patent OfficeSuggested Further ReadingIndex
£41.50
Johns Hopkins University Press Early FM Radio
Book SynopsisHistorians of technology, communication, and media will welcome this important reexamination of the canonic story of early FM radio.Trade ReviewEarly FM Radio is the first serious biography to benefit from the newer documents... a valuable addition to the history of electronics, not least because it relieves Armstrong and Sarnoff of their mythological status as angel and devil and considers them instead as differently gifted practitioners. -- Michael Riezenman IEEE Spectrum Magazine 2010 Frost's unique-I am tempted to write groundbreaking-book now becomes one whose ideas all future historians of FM must absorb. -- David W. Kraeuter AWA Journal 2010 Frost examines the extensive Armstrong archives to paint a more nuanced picture of the complex and tumultuous relationship between Armstrong and RCA, while tracing the 'pre-history' of FM going back to about 1900. Choice 2010Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: What Do We Know about FM Radio?1. AM and FM Radio before 19202. Congestion and Frequency-Modulation Research, 1913–19333. RCA, Armstrong, and the Acceleration of FM Research, 1926–19334. The Serendipitous Discovery of Staticless Radio, 1915–19355. FM Pioneers, RCA, and the Reshaping of Wideband FM Radio, 1935–1940ConclusionAppendix: FM-Related Patents, 1902-1953NotesGlossaryEssay on SourcesIndex
£54.00
Johns Hopkins University Press Midnight Ride Industrial Dawn Paul Revere and the
Book SynopsisOriginal and well told, this account argues that the greatest patriotic contribution of America's Midnight Rider was his work in helping the nation develop from a craft to an industrial economy.Trade ReviewMartello succeeds superbly in using Paul Revere as a lens to view the social, economic, and technological landscape of early America... Revere's adept transitions are matched only by Martello's adept retelling of them. Highly recommended. Choice 2011 Revere sensed that he was living in a time of unprecedented opportunity, and unlike some contemporaries who returned to small shops, he moved quickly from artisan to manager, from craftsman to industrialist. As Martello demonstrates in this fascinating study, the transition was not easy. Times Literary Supplement 2011 Martello's account of Revere's life is a welcome addition to the literature on American industry and on the founding fathers. -- Lawrence A. Peskin Common-Place 2011Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. Artisan, Silversmith, and Businessman (1754–1775) Chapter 2. Patriot, Soldier, and Handyman of the Revolution (1775–1783)Chapter 3. Mercantile Ambitions and a New Look at Silver (1783–1789)Chapter 4. To Run a "Furnass": The Iron Years (1788–1792)Chapter 5. Bells, Cannon, and Malleable Copper (1792–1801)Chapter 6. Paul Revere's Last Ride: The Road to Rolling Copper (1798–1801) Chapter 7. The Onset of Industrial Capitalism: Managerial and Labor Adaptations (1802–1811)Chapter 8. Becoming Industrial: Technological Innovations and Environmental Implications (1802–1811) Conclusion Acknowledgments Appendixes1. Major Events in the Narratives of Paul Revere and America 2. Four Proto-industrial Production Factors and Major Linkages 3. Prevalent Craft and Industrial Practices in the Proto-industrial Period 4. Selected Revere Engravings 5. Furnace Startup Expenses for 1787–1788 6. April 1796 Payments to Faxon 7. Revere's Second Letter to Benjamin Stoddert, February 26, 1800 8. Employee Salaries, 1802–1806 9. Typical Stages in the Growth of a Large Technological System Notes Index
£34.44
University of Minnesota Press CoinOperated Americans
Book SynopsisVideo gaming: it's a boy's world, right? That's what the industry wants us to think. Why and how we came to comply are what Carly A. Kocurek investigates in this provocative consideration of how an industry's craving for respectability hooked up with cultural narratives about technology, masculinity, and youth at the video arcade.From the dawn of tTrade Review"Carly A. Kocurek provides a fascinating cultural history of arcade gaming and, in doing so, offers keen insight into our ongoing conversations around gender and gaming. This is a must read for those interested not only in game studies but in the evolution of American boyhood."—T.L. Taylor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology"An excellent study of the early history of the video game industry and how it came to define the gamer as male."—Library Journal"The great contribution of Kocurek’s Coin-Operated Americans is its attempt to historicize a relationship that often appears natural to cultural gatekeepers and other onlookers, not to mention reactionary “gamers” themselves."—Public Books"This detailed study provides a lucid, compelling narrative that will interest a very diverse audience."—CHOICE"Coin-Operated Americans is an invaluable contribution for those interested in the intersection among media, technology, and critical questions surrounding children and youth."—Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth"Kocurek invites readers to imagine the sensory environment of the early arcade, its sights and sounds, which serves as a vivid backdrop for the compelling cultural history the book chronicles."—Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth"Productive contributions to studies of masculinity, and to studies of gender and digital play more broadly."—Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality "Coin-Operated Americans will make an excellent addition to undergraduate courses on gender studies, American culture, and the recent past."—Oral History ReviewTable of ContentsContentsAcknowledgments Introduction1. The Microcosmic Arcade: Playing at the Cultural Vanguard 2. Gaming’s Gold Medalists: Twin Galaxies and the Rush to Competitive Gaming3. Adapting Violence: Death Race and the History of Gaming Moral Panic4. Anarchy in the Arcade: Regulating Coin-Op Video Games5. Play Saves the Day: TRON, WarGames, and the Gamer as Protagonist6. The Arcade Is Dead, Long Live the Arcade: Nostalgia in an Era of Ubiquitous Computing7. The Future Is Now: Changes in Gaming CultureNotesBibliographyIndex
£999.99
Wisconsin Historical Society Press HorseDrawn Days A Century of Farming with Horses
Book Synopsis
£999.99
WW Norton & Co Maker of Patterns
Book SynopsisBoth recalling his life story and recounting many of the major advances in twentieth-century science, a renowned physicist shares his autobiography through letters.Trade Review"[The letters] cover a remarkable range of scientific interests, acquaintances, opinions and adventures… He says what you wouldn’t expect; if Dyson has a pattern, perhaps it is contrariety… The one Dysonian pattern for which the letters hold unequivocal evidence is delight. He uses the word often and invokes it even more…Maybe with some people, you don’t look for patterns. You just enjoy their multivariate company." -- Ann Finkbeiner, Nature"There is much in the letters collected here to enjoy; Mr. Dyson writes wonderfully well." -- Ray Monk, The Wall Street Journal"A firsthand account of one of the greatest periods of scientific discovery…. A historic account of modern science and some of its most influential thinkers… An informative collection." -- Library Journal"Who but Dyson formulates revolutionary physics while riding on a Greyhound bus through Iowa cornfields? In other episodes in this remarkable epistolary autobiography, readers join Dyson as he assesses with Gödel equations for a rotating version of Einstein’s universe, as he defends Feynman’s quantum theorems against Oppenheimer’s doubts, and as he explores with Bohr the prospects for a nuclear spaceship. Readers will naturally value what Dyson reveals about how he built his towering reputation as a scientist. But Dyson draws the substance of his narrative from letters he sent his parents between 1940 and 1980, letters in which he discloses quite unscientific aspects of his life—including the joys of romance, marriage, and fatherhood, as well as the trauma of divorce…. Dyson never lets readers forget that, for all of their exceptional intellectual gifts, scientists live human lives defined more by family ties and friendships than by laboratory results." -- Booklist [Starred Review]"Advocates of science will find in Dyson an admirable model. Why go to Mars when we could irrigate the Sahara, he asks. The science of space travel may be 10 times the benefit in the end, he writes, but 'the main purpose is a general enlargement of human horizons.' A pleasure for science students and particularly of science humanely practiced." -- Kirkus Reviews
£20.89
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Dealers of Lightning
Book SynopsisIn the bestselling tradition of The Soul of a New Machine, Dealers of Lightning is a fascinating journey of intellectual creation. In the 1970s and ''80s, Xerox Corporation brought together a brain-trust of engineering geniuses, a group of computer eccentrics dubbed PARC. This brilliant group created several monumental innovations that triggered a technological revolution, including the first personal computer, the laser printer, and the graphical interface (one of the main precursors of the Internet), only to see these breakthroughs rejected by the corporation. Yet, instead of giving up, these determined inventors turned their ideas into empires that radically altered contemporary life and changed the world.Based on extensive interviews with the scientists, engineers, administrators, and executives who lived the story, this riveting chronicle details PARC''s humble beginnings through its triumph as a hothouse for ideas, and shows why Xerox was never able to grasp, and ultimately exploit, the cutting-edge innovations PARC delivered. Dealers of Lightning offers an unprecedented look at the ideas, the inventions, and the individuals that propelled Xerox PARC to the frontier of technohistoiy--and the corporate machinations that almost prevented it from achieving greatness.
£18.04
Bluewood Books,U.S. Technology in the Twentieth Century
Book Synopsis
£9.50
The Highfield Press Southampton Turning Stone to Bread A Diachronic Study of
Book Synopsis
£69.85
Random House USA Inc Bitwise
Book SynopsisAn exhilarating, elegant memoir and a significant polemic on how computers and algorithms shape our understanding of the world and of who we are Bitwise is a wondrous ode to the computer languages and codes that captured technologist David Auerbach’s imagination. With a philosopher’s sense of inquiry, Auerbach recounts his childhood spent drawing ferns with the programming language Logo on the Apple IIe, his adventures in early text-based video games, his education as an engineer, and his contributions to instant messaging technology developed for Microsoft and the servers powering Google’s data stores. A lifelong student of the systems that shape our lives—from the psychiatric taxonomy of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual to how Facebook tracks and profiles its users—Auerbach reflects on how he has experienced the algorithms that taxonomize human speech, knowledge, and behavior and that compel us to do the same. Into this exquisitely crafted, wide-ranging memoir of a life spent with code, Auerbach has woven an eye-opening and searing examination of the inescapable ways in which algorithms have both standardized and coarsened our lives. As we engineer ever more intricate technology to translate our experiences and narrow the gap that divides us from the machine, Auerbach argues, we willingly erase our nuances and our idiosyncrasies—precisely the things that make us human.
£15.26
WW Norton & Co Nuts and Bolts
Book SynopsisShortlisted for the 2023 Royal Society Science Book Prize A structural engineer examines the seven most basic building blocks of engineering that have shaped the modern world.Trade Review"A riveting love letter to the small, wonderful, and mundane things that make the modern world." -- Roman Mars, creator and host, 99% Invisible podcast"Charming." -- Sam Kean - Wall Street Journal"Agrawal is telling a story not just about great inventions but also about the societies that make and use them and the people who are affected by them.... [Nuts & Bolts] offers a robust history that should speak to scientists’ and engineers’ sense of social awareness." -- Adam R. Shapiro - Science"Delightful.... [T]here is an endless fascination in everyday objects such as springs, wheels and nails, from the physics behind them to simple practical tips.... [W]hile it is the enchantingly sophisticated technologies that get all the hype, it’s the cheap technologies that change the world." -- Tim Harford - Financial Times"A wonderful book that explores the creative and inventive human impulses expressed through engineering…A fascinating tour that brings to life the springs, ratchets, and fibres that make up the machines of our modern age." -- Mark Miodownik, materials scientist, engineer, and author of Stuff Matters"There is passion for engineering on every single page…Roma Agrawal has a special skill of reawakening that part of us that simply wants to understand how the built world works, and to dream of creating our own machines." -- Angela Saini, author of Inferior"A masterclass in storytelling…Agrawal is the perfect narrator: her curiosity, technical knowledge, and excitement fill every page. It left me inspired by the ingenuity of historic engineers and optimistic for future innovation." -- Jess Wade, physicist and author of Nano"Fascinating stories behind the humble devices that make our human world work, told with an engineer’s infectious excitement and enthusiasm for detail." -- Gaia Vince, author of Nomad Century"Inside this wonderfully engaging book is a profound message: that so much of technology comes from ingenious reiterations of just a few innovations in engineering…Roma Agrawal brings these inventions vividly to life." -- Philip Ball, author of The Book of Minds"Essential reading for budding engineers, young and old." -- Anna Ploszajski, materials scientist, engineer, and author of Handmade"A quirky, entertaining riff on the building blocks of engineering." -- Kirkus Reviews
£21.59
Pen & Sword Books Ltd A History of the Cotton Industry
Book SynopsisThis book is about technology and how it has changed the lives of people on three continents over the last three hundred years. The development of the cotton industry was the starting point for one of the great turning points in history the industrial revolution. It began with the importation of cloth into Britain from India and that created a new fashion. As the demand for cotton cloth grew, British inventors began to find ways of making the same cloth using powered machinery and built the first cotton mills. The old way of life of the textile workers was transformed, as work moved from home to factory and thousands of small children were brought in to tend the new machines. If conditions in the cotton towns were bad, they were far worse in America where, thanks to the work of slaves, the country took over the supply of raw material from India. During the American Civil War, Britain turned again to India for its supplies. Today, positions have changed dramatically. India again has a
£999.99
Crown Publishing Group (NY) Thunderstruck
Book Synopsis
£26.00
Johns Hopkins University Press Making Tobacco Bright
Book SynopsisCombining economic theory with the history of technology, Making Tobacco Bright revises several narratives in American history, from colonial staple-crop agriculture to the origins of the tobacco industry to the rise of identity politics in the twentieth century.Trade ReviewA discerning analysis of not only how a commodity-tobacco-was shaped and defined by technology, but also how technology can be influenced by a commodity... This interesting, thorough history will appeal to readers and researchers alike. Highly recommended. Choice Thoroughly researched, engaging, and enjoyable...An excellent first book. -- James C. Giesen Environmental History Strongly argued and deeply researched. -- Evan P. Bennett Agricultural History Hahn has produced an important book, thoroughly researched and persuasively argued, that deserves a wide audience among American historians. Journal of American History Hahn has written an ambitious book that examines how Americans created a commodity whose roots were densely-perhaps inextricably-tangled with those of the growing nation. Her work deserves a broad readership among students of southern agriculture, economic history, and the history of science and technology. -- Max Grivno Journal of Southern History ... Making Tobacco Bright is an impressive book, one that rewrites conventional understandings of tobacco as a crop, a commodity, and a symbol. From Jamestown to contemporary southern fields, Hahn tells an old story in an entirely fresh way. -- Drew A. Swanson Technology and CultureTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionProloguePart I1. Making Tobacco Virginian2. Growing the Business3. Death and TaxesPart II4. Ripeness Is All5. Inventing Tradition6. StabilizationAppendixNotesEssay on SourcesIndex
£54.00
Johns Hopkins University Press The Science of Navigation
Book SynopsisWith it you'll finally understand the why of wayfinding.Trade ReviewDenny, a theoretical physicist and prolific author, impresses his audience with the immense knowledge and effort that has been expended in developing methods for people to navigate from place to place. ChoiceTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentIntroduction: Point of DepartureFirst Quadrant: Geodesy1. Earth and Its Orbit2. Shaping the EarthSecond Quadrant: Cartography3. Surveying4. MapmakingThird Quadrant: Early Exploration and Navigation5. Early Explorers, Basic Tools6. Europe Discovers the WorldFourth Quadrant: Navigation in Modern Times7. The Age of Sail and Steam8. The Electronic AgeConclusion: Nature's NavigatorsTechnical AppendixAnnotated BibliographyIndex
£58.00
Johns Hopkins University Press Refrigeration Nation
Book SynopsisRees shows that how we obtain and preserve perishable food is related to our changing relationship with the natural world.Trade ReviewA smart and illuminating book that will be of great interest to anyone engaged with either the history of technology or the history of food. American Historical Review Rees has written an entertaining, well-narrated, and well-researched book about building one root infrastructure of modern food systems. He brings this infrastructure to the foreground of U.S. history, and hopefully the book will reach a broad readership, both within history departments and a public with an interest in the intersections of the histories of food, business, and technology. Business History Refrigeration Nation is a well-written and useful book for both scholars and students... Rees presents a well-developed account of the importance of American enterprise and innovation in the national and global marketplace. History: Reviews of New Books A fascinating book. Heritage Radio Refrigeration Nation is a valuable, well-researched study, but it also suggests the need for more work on a subject that at first seems mundane and taken for granted but, upon greater inspection, is really quite fascinating and compelling. Journal of American Culture Jonathan Rees provides us a good history of the ice industry, cold chains, cold storage, refrigerated transport, and mechanical refrigeration in this valuable book. Biz India Magazine [Rees] delves into the very infrastructure of ice-making, chronicling the engineering feats, describing the machinery of temperature control, and a particularly appealing exploration of human ingenuity that has made refrigerated food the norm in American homes. Food, Culture, and Society Nowhere else can one find such rich information on everything from ice boxes to home freezers to refrigerated container ships... A most welcome contribution to our understanding of how Americans came to expect cold drinks, unpickled produce, and unsalted meats as a matter of course. -- Shane Hamilton Agricultural History Nowhere else can one find such rich information on everything from ice boxes to home freezers to refrigerated container ships... A most welcome contribution to our understanding of how Americans came to expect cold drinks, unpickled produce, and unsalted meats as a matter of course. Agricultural HistoryTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Inventing the Cold Chain2. The Long Wait for Mechanical Refrigeration3. The Decline of the Natural Ice Industry4. Refrigerated Transport Near and Far5. The Pleasures and Perils of Cold Storage6. "Who Ever Heard of an American without an Icebox?"7. The Early Days of Electric Household Refrigeration8. The Completion of the Modern Cold ChainConclusionNotesEssay on SourcesIndex
£41.50
Johns Hopkins University Press Home Fires
Book SynopsisThis perspective allows a unique view of the development of an industrial society not just from the ground up but from the hearth up.Trade ReviewThis smartly written and well-informed book focuses on a subject that very few people think about - the history of home heating in America... The writing flows well, making it an enjoyable read. The scholarship is sound. Choice Sean Patrick Adams's slim study touches lightly on this hot topic... The stove does not just heat; it allows us to see the 'connections we all have to wider networks of production, distribution, and consumption. -- Eric Rauchway Times Literary Supplement Home Fires is easily the most thorough and best-grounded account of the coal-based system of heating in the nineteenth-century United States. On the matters it considers, the book is authoritative. Adams, in addition, writes engagingly, constantly illustrating his general points with striking details and vignettes gleaned from extensive research, chiefly in printed primary and secondary sources. -- William B. Meyer New England Quarterly Adams's Home Fires does, indeed, tell a fascinating story in the well-researched methodology of a trained and experienced historian, with a keen interest in using history to learn how to deal with the pressing issues of the future. Journal of American Culture Adams's Home Fires does, indeed, tell a fascinating story in the well-researched methodology of a trained and experienced historian, with a keen interest in using history to learn how to deal with the pressing issues of the future. Journal of American CultureTable of ContentsPrefacePrologue1. How the Industrial Economy Made the Stove2. How Mineral Heat Came to American Cities3. How the Coal Trade Made Heat Cheap4. How the Industrial Hearth Defied Control5. How Steam Heat Found Its LimitsEpilogueNotesSelected Further ReadingIndex
£39.00
Johns Hopkins University Press Wikipedia U
Book SynopsisLeitch regards Wikipedia as an ideal instrument for probing the central assumptions behind liberal education, making it more than merely, as one of its severest critics has charged, the encyclopedia game, played online.Trade ReviewIn this thoughtful and thorough analysis, the author demonstrates how technology has complicated and enriched learning. This work is ideal for teachers, students, librarians, and would-be Wikipedia contributors. Library Journal This book is an excellent treatise on the controversy over authority and experience. Scholarly, written for an academic or more specialized audience, it is still accessible to the general reader, and well worth the effort... This important book is an essential discussion about how knowledge is disseminated and when it should be believed. -- Gretchen Wagner San Francisco Book Review In this deceptively slender volume, Leitch gathers a fascinating set of narratives around the nature of authority in the academic world... engaging and controversial... a critical (in several senses) debate about the very nature of authority and how it can, and must, evolve and be refined as both society and technology change around us. -- John Gilbey Times Higher Education Leitch's innovation is to spin the table in both directions: He uses the values of higher education to expose the contradictions of Wikipedia, but he just as deftly employs Wikipedia's ethos to expose the paradoxes of liberal education's own claims to authority. -- Timothy Messer-Kruse Chronicle of Higher Education This book considers the nature of knowledge, its authority, and its new challenges in the age of the internet, and considers its role behind liberal education processes as a whole. The result is a fine study that should be in any college-level collection. Midwest Book Review This book offers an engagine discussion of important questions of authority. Canadian Journal of Higher Education Wikipedia U is a useful handbook for teachers hoping to help students navigate information in our digital age. Pedagogy Leitch digs into this apparently straightforward contradiction to uncover any number of complications-he calls them paradoxes-of authority on both the online and liberal-education sides. Change: The Magazine of Higher LearningTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Battle of the Books1. Origin Stories2. Paradoxes of Authority3. The Case against Wikipedia4. Playing the Encylopedia Game5. Tommor and Tomorrow and TomorrowAppendix: Exercises for Exploring Wikipedia and AuthorityNotesIndex
£31.26
Johns Hopkins University Press Changing the Face of Engineering
Book SynopsisThis volume will be of interest to STEM scholars and students, as well as policymakers, corporations, and higher education institutions.Table of ContentsForewordAcknowledgementsIntroduction Part I: Historical BackgroundChapter 1. A Brief History of the Collaborative Minority Engineering Effort: A Personal AccountPart II: Educational SystemsChapter 2. African American Engineering Deans of Majority- Serving Institutions in the United StatesChapter 3. Engineering the Future: African Americans in Doctoral Engineering ProgramsChapter 4. African American Women and Men into Engineering: Are Some Pathways Smoother Than Others?Chapter 5. Clarifying the Contributions of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Engineering EducationChapter 6. Beyond the Black- White Minority Experience: Undergraduate Engineering Trends among African AmericansPart III: Workforce ParticipationChapter 7. Profiles of Distinguished African American Engineers at NASAChapter 8. African American Engineers in Business and IndustryChapter 9. Socializing African American Female Engineers into Academic Careers: The Case of the Cross- Disciplinary Initiative for Minority Women FacultyChapter 10. Race for the Gold: African Americans— Honorific Awards and RecognitionPart IV: Policies and Programs to Broaden ParticipationChapter 11. College Me, Career Me: Building K–12 Student Identities for Success in EngineeringChapter 12. Enhancing the Community College Pathway to Engineering Careers for African American Students: A Critical Review of Promising and Best PracticesChapter 13. Spelman's Dual- Degree Engineering Program: A Path for Engineering DiversificationChapter 14. Enhancing the Number of African Americans Pursuing the PhD in Engineering: Outcomes and Processes in the Meyerhoff Scholarship ProgramPart V: Future Directions Chapter 15. Challenges and Opportunities for the Next GenerationContributors Index
£43.00
Johns Hopkins University Press The History of the London Water Industry 15801820
Book SynopsisThis fascinating and unique study of essential utilities in the early modern period will interest business historians and historians of science and technology alike.Trade ReviewFor me, Tomory’s book is relevant to the current water debate: is water a human right that is foundational to other human rights including access to food and sanitation, for example, or is water a commodity like chocolate or coal that should be fully monetized? Examining London’s water industry provides insights into how for-profit water companies worked (and might still work in some cases) and certain inherent problems associated with limiting public access to water, including disease, that led to government takeovers and buyouts of water suppliers in many parts of the world, including London, in the nineteenth century.—MetascienceThe History of the London Water Industry is a well-written book that will reward anyone interested in the development of urban infrastructure, London’s growth as a world city, or the broader innovations surrounding Britain’s industrial revolution.—Business History ReviewTable of ContentsIntroductionTechnological and industrial change1.1 London1.2 Late Medieval and Early Modern Urban Water Supply1.3 New Water Technology1.4 A Thirsty City1.5 Patents1.6 Peter Morris and the London Bridge Waterworks1.7 Other Water EntrepreneursConclusion2.1 Corporations and Joint-Stock Companies2.2 Myddelton's Politics and the New River Company2.3 Supplying LondonConclusion3.1 Slow Growth and Stabilization, 1625-16603.2 Growth of the New River, 1660-17003.3 Improving and joint-stock companies, 1660-17003.4 New Attempts, 1700-1730Conclusion4.1 The Scale of the New River4.2 Wren's and Lowthorp's Reports4.3 Reform of Operations4.3.1 Maintaining Adequate Supply4.3.2 The Pipe Network4.3.3 Controlling Customers4.3.4 Manufacturing Pipes4.3.5 Maintenance4.3.6 Legal DimensionConclusion5.1 The Nature of Competition: Dominance of the New River and the LBWW5.2 The New LBWW to 17505.2.1 The Engines5.2.2 The Water Tower and the Mains5.2.3 The Employees and Operations5.3 The LBWW After 1750Conclusion6.1 Supplying Houses6.2 Brewers and Other Large Users6.3 Geography of Consumption6.4 Municipal Uses: Fire and CleaningConclusion7.1 The New River Company's Efforts to Maintain Water Quality7.2 Bathing in the New RiverConclusion8.1 Transformations in London to 18208.2 Legacy of the London Water NetworkConclusion
£47.50
Johns Hopkins University Press In the Looking Glass
Book SynopsisFocusing on how mirrors were acquired in America and by whom, as well as the profound influence mirrors had, both individually and collectively, on the groups that embraced them, In the Looking Glass is a piece of innovative textual and visual scholarship.Trade ReviewThis brief volume, meticulously footnoted, generously illustrated, and beautifully produced by the Johns Hopkins University Press, could certainly be adopted in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses. It might well teach history majors and graduate students the value of daring to ask questions for which there are no easy or complete answers, and of painstakingly piecing together fragmentary evidence from a wide range of archival, archaeological, and material collections. Shrum’s intelligent use of cultural theory and interdisciplinary perspectives might also serve as a model for advanced history students.—The History TeacherA superb reflection of the many meanings held by an object usually taken for granted. Highly recommended.—ChoiceShrum's work is required reading for upcoming scholars who are attempting to trace the social life of things in the formation of American identities.—Christopher Allison, University of Chicago, Journal of Southern HistoryIn the Looking Glass: Mirrors and Identity in Early America is an important contribution to the fields of early American history, material culture studies, and cultural and American studies. Shrum's study will help scholars recognize how the study of records and other historical evidence, in highlighting the silence of certain groups of people, also enables us to see what forces determined those silences.—Chiara Cillerai, St. John's University, Early American LiteratureShrum's accomplishment is to tease out the many meanings that made looking glasses among the most widely owned and used consumer good in early America.—Paul G. E. Clemens, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, Reviews in American HistoryRebecca Shrum's [In the Looking Glass] packs a powerful punch. Moving deftly over the course of three centuries, she presents an original, interdisciplinary and utterly fascinating reading of the multiple uses and meanings of mirrors among European Americans, African Americans, and Native Americans . . . an important and thoughtprovoking study of a widely used object, which we all too often take for granted, and its very exceptional history.—Sharon Halevi, University of Haifa, Journal of Social HistoryShrum's thesis builds as a crescendo from detailed, meticulous attention in the initial chapters to the production technologies and marketing of various kinds of mirrors to whites, Africans, and Native Americans to develop her powerful arguments and her claims in the concluding chapters concerning race, racialization, and racism . . . [Shrum] mobilizes a rich body of materials concisely to illustrate and support her thesis.—Lester C. Olson, University of Pittsburgh, Journal of American HistoryTable of ContentsIntroduction1. The Evolving Technology of the Looking Glass2. First Glimpses3. Looking-Glass Ownership in Early America4. Reliable Mirrors and Troubling Visions5. Fashioning Whiteness6. Mirrors in Black and RedEpilogueAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex
£37.36
Johns Hopkins University Press Before the Refrigerator
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewIn Before the Refrigerator: How We Used to Get Ice, Jonathan Rees provides a rich and detailed history of how ice became an American staple . . . Rees does a masterful job illustrating how, in its rise and fall, the ice industry created many industry alliances and consumer habits that are still with us today. Ice has become a taken-for-granted feature of modern living. This book is the story of how that came to be.—Xaq Frohlich, Auburn University, Journal of Southern History[Before the Refrigerator] is an in-depth portrayal of a once-indispensable, life-changing technology, the former existence of which is as unknown to most of us as that of the telegraph or canal is to today's undergraduates . . . Rees synthesizes considerable archival research and presents interpretations of importance to scholars . . . Before the Refrigerator is as refreshing as ice water on a hot summer day.—Jeffrey L. Meikle, University of Texas at Austin, Journal of American HistoryTable of ContentsPrefaceIntroduction1. How to Harvest Ice2. How to Manufacture Ice3. How Ice (and the Perishable Food It Preserved) Made It to Consumers4. How Ice Changed the American Diet and American Life5. How Household Refrigerators Changed the Ice Market ForeverConclusionAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex
£22.68
Johns Hopkins University Press The Problem with Pilots
Book SynopsisAn illuminating look at how human vulnerability led to advances in aviation technology. As aircraft flew higher, faster, and farther in the early days of flight, pilots were exposed as vulnerable, inefficient, and dangerous. They asphyxiated or got the bends at high altitudes; they fainted during high-G maneuvers; they spiraled to the ground after encountering clouds or fog. Their capacity to commit fatal errors seemed boundless. The Problem with Pilots tells the story of how, in the years between the world wars, physicians and engineers sought new ways to address these difficulties and bridge the widening gap between human and machine performance. A former Air Force pilot, Timothy P. Schultz delves into archival sources to understand the evolution of the pilotaircraft relationship. As aviation technology evolved and enthusiasts looked for ways to advance its military uses, pilots ceded hands-on control to sophisticated instrument-based control. By the early 1940s, pilots were someTrade ReviewThis book does what any good history book should do — introduce new ideas, new ways of looking at old ideas, and it pushes its field (aviation history) in new directions, opening new doors for further study and generating interesting new questions. Highly recommended.—GoodReadsWhat Schultz has done, comprehensively, yet engagingly, is to tell the stories behind key milestones in a way that brings them to life. He shines a light on the human element, specifically the humanity behind the legends of Air Force history, while simultaneously placing them in the larger historical context visible now with the benefit of hindsight . . . It is an important contribution to the public discourse around the future of flight, the future of military aviation, and the future of the US Air Force. The Problem With Pilots is a rewarding read and will be of wide interest to all USAF leaders of today and tomorrow— aspiring military and civilian pilots, flight surgeons, aeronautical engineers, and aviation historians.—Lt Col Kari Thyne, PhD, USAF, Retired, Air UniversityThe Problem with Pilots is a worthy addition to the scholarship on how aviation evolved during the first half of the twentieth century and its influence on the decades that followed. It benefits from thorough archival and published primary source documentation.—Jeremy R. Kinney, Aeronautics Department, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, IsisSchultz is writing for two separate audiences: fellow historians of technology as well as mid-career military officers who represent the rising generation of top commanders and policymakers. This may seem a tall order, but the author's diverse background—retired military pilot, Ph.D. in History of Technology, former Commandant and Dean of the U.S. Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies—allows him to bridge this gap . . . Schultz provides readers with both the historical case studies and the theoretical tools to clearly demonstrate what too few policymakers seem to fully grasp: there is no such thing as technological determinism.—Alan D. Meyer, Auburn University, Technology and CultureIs the original concept of the pilot, going, going, gone forever in this modern high speed, highly technical, highly manoeuvrable, flying world? You will have to read the book . . .—Dr Ian Perry, FRAeS, AerospaceTable of ContentsTimelineAbbreviationsPrefaceAcknowledgments1. Introduction2. The Pathology of Flight3. Engineering the Human Machine4. Flying Blind5. The Changing Role of the Human Component6. Flight without Flyers7. The Modern Pilot, Redefined8. New Horizons of Flight9. ConclusionCodaAbout the AuthorNotesIndex
£39.00
Johns Hopkins University Press Gamer Nation
Book SynopsisExplores how games actively influence the ways people interpret and relate to American life. In 1975, design engineer Dave Nutting completed work on a new arcade machine. A version of Taito's Western Gun, a recent Japanese arcade machine, Nutting's Gun Fight depicted a classic showdown between gunfighters. Rich in Western folklore, the game seemed perfect for the American market; players easily adapted to the new technology, becoming pistol-wielding pixel cowboys. One of the first successful early arcade titles, Gun Fight helped introduce an entire nation to video-gaming and sold more than 8,000 units. In Gamer Nation, John Wills examines how video games co-opt national landscapes, livelihoods, and legends. Arguing that video games toy with Americans' mass cultural and historical understanding, Wills show how games reprogram the American experience as a simulated reality. Blockbuster games such as Civilization, Call of Duty, and Red Dead Redemption repackage the past, refashioning Trade ReviewThis book could prove useful for those interested in the impact of video games in the contemporary perception of America such as scholars and professionals in the fields of communication, political activism, and other social sciences.—Communication Booknotes QuarterlyTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction. A New Realm of PlayChapter One. Games and New Frontiers Chapter Two. Playing Cowboys and Indians in the Digital Wild West Chapter Three. Cold War Gaming Chapter Four. 9/11 Code Chapter Five. Fighting the Virtual War on TerrorChapter Six. Grand Theft Los Angeles Chapter Seven. Second Life, Second America Conclusion. Converging Worlds NotesReferencesIndex
£35.27
