Description
Book SynopsisCreators of the modern industrial state, engineers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were part of a rising force or urban, middle-class experts. The vanguard of this élite, engineers embraced a vision of a new social order and believed that as society's natural leaders their special destiny was to solve social problems with engineering methods.
Unfortunately, this perception of engineers was not adopted by others, and engineers felt unrecognized and unrewarded. While they possessed expertise essential to industry, as salaried employees living on fixed incomes they could neither control their professional lives nor protect themselves from competition. Unlike the practice of law and medicine, engineering had no legal standing; anyone could practise.
In this study of the profession as it evolved in Canada, J. Rodney Millard explores the issues that shaped engineers' perceptions of their work and its place in society. He explains how engineers, determined to rais
