Beyond Engineering

We have long recognized technology as a driving force behind much historical and cultural change. The invention of the printing press initiated the Reformation. The development of the compass ushered in the Age of Exploration and the discovery of the New World. The cotton gin created the conditions that led to the Civil War. In this volume, the author turns the question around to examine how society shapes technology. Drawing on such disparate fields as history, economics, risk analysis, management science, sociology and psychology, Pool illuminates the complex interplay between machines and society. We tend to think that reason guides technological development, that engineering expertise alone determines the final form an invention takes. But if you look closely enough at the history of any invention, says Pool, you will find that factors unrelated to engineering seem to have an almost equal impact.

"It's a truism that technology has driven modern history. In this wise, insightful book, Robert Pool explores the deeper truth that history shapes technology."—Richard Rhodes, author The Making of the Atomic Bomb., "Robert Pool brings the whole pageant of technology to life—with all its triumphs, humanness, heartaches, and accidents of history. A great read."—Brian Arthur, Citibank Professor at the Sante Fe Institute, "Story telling is a fine art, and Robert Pool is a master. From a squash court under the stadium at the University of Chicago, to the flight deck of modern aircraft carrier, Beyond Engineering treats the reader to 101 tales about the creation and use of modern technologies. Like all great story tellers, Poll weaves his entertaining narrative into an exploration of some deeply serious questions. To what extent is technical knowledge objective, to what extent socially constructed? How much does the broad course of technical progress depend upon small, perhaps even random, events? In clear, simple language, Pool illuminates such critical questions in a way that should bring insight to nontechnical and to many technical readers."—M. Granger Morgan, Head of the Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, "A crystal clear narrative about the recent history of large-scale technology. He demonstrates persuasively that technology shapes our lives in complex ways, deserving as much thought and watchful skepticism as political affairs demand. His may be the best book available for the general reader engaging our human-built world."—Thomas P. Hughes, Mellon Professor Emeritus, The University of Pennsylvania, and Visiting Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "A less modest and more accurate subtitle of this superb book would read: A New, Lively, Absorbing, and Deeply Instructive Way of Thinking About Modern Technology. For anyone at all interested in understanding the complex and puzzling ways in which major new technologies came to be and ended up as they have, this is a definitive work, not to be missed." —Robert K. Merton, University Professor Emeritus, Columbia University

About the Author: Robert Pool writes for Discover and New Scientist and is author of Eves Rib.