Henry Petroski

Fiction
Nonfiction
Literature
Science Fiction

 

View shopping cart

1.		Alexander Calder: The Paris Years, 1926-1933 (Whitney Museum of American Art) from The Whitney Museum of American Art Price: $37.80 Customer Review: Alexander Calder (1898-1976) was an American sculptor and artist, perhaps best known for inventing the mobile. He moved from New York to Paris in 1926, where he established a studio in the Montparnasse Quarter. His articulated toys (particularly the "Cirque Calder") constructed from wire, string,... more info	Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0 Click here for more information Buy from: United Kingdom

2.		The Toothpick: Technology and Culture (Vintage) from Vintage Price: $10.85 Customer Review: I am a long-time Petroski fan, owning all of his books and having read with great joy almost all of them. He has a knack for taking an ordinary, everyday object (pencil, paper clip, bookshelf, ....) and finding the stories that make for a fascinating socio-technical history. This book is no... more info	Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0 Click here for more information Buy from: United Kingdom

3.	[no image]	To engineer is human: The role of failure in successful design from Barnes & Noble Books Customer Review: I found the book absolutely fascinating, especially since I am a mechanical engineer by education and experience. To Engineer is Human covers some of the greatest engineering disasters in modern times such as the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse, the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Walkways collapse and the... more info	Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0 Click here for more information Buy from: United Kingdom

4.	[no image]	Evolution of Useful Things from Topeka Bindery Customer Review: The concept is interesting: take a deep look at some of the most common items in our home and consider how they came into their current form. His main thesis is that form does not follow function, but rather that form follows failure. When presented with a tool that doesn't do quite what you want it... more info	Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0 Click here for more information Buy from: United Kingdom

5.		Success through Failure: The Paradox of Design from Princeton University Press Price: $12.89 Customer Review: Fact-based analysis of how we can learn from past failures. A good lesson with good examples but the book is a little slow in places.	Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5.0 Click here for more information Buy from: United Kingdom

6.		Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering from Vintage Price: $11.16 Customer Review: Perhaps because they have become so good that they are taken for granted, engineers don't get the respect they used to and still deserve. It was different in the 19th century, when it was an open question whether the latest railroad, bridge or tunnel would work. Many didn't. The occasional... more info	Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0 Click here for more information Buy from: United Kingdom

7.		The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance from Knopf Price: $13.60 Customer Review: I'll admit that I was only able to force myself to read the first 90 pages. The prose varies from rambling to ranting. The author jumps from subject to subject like a pogo stick. At first I believed that the author was using the pencil as a vehicle to expound on engineering as opposed to science,... more info	Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0 Click here for more information Buy from: United Kingdom

8.		Invention by Design; How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing from Harvard University Press Price: $12.92 Customer Review: This book was very thought provoking and showed me the immense amount of time and revision it takes to create a simple, everyday product. It helped me realize how small and mostly overlooked items, are complex and wonderfully designed. A paper clip, for example, is only a small piece of wire,... more info	Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0 Click here for more information Buy from: United Kingdom

9.		Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering from Cambridge University Press Price: $32.39 Customer Review: I read this book when it first came out in 1994, and have just finished re-reading it. I can attest that the lessons which emerge from Dr. Petroski's study of structural engineering failures have proved valuable throughout my career, particularly when designing bridges which pushed the... more info	Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0 Click here for more information Buy from: United Kingdom

10.		The Book on the Bookshelf from Vintage Price: $10.17 Customer Review: Great title, great cover. But not worth a book. The history of the bookshelf is interesting, sort of, but this entire book could have been made more interesting by compressing it into two or three articles, max, in, say, The New Yorker or The Atlantic. That's why those magazines exist. This book is... more info	Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0 Click here for more information Buy from: United Kingdom

1 - 10

Portions © Amazon.com, Inc.

Search All productsBooksPopular musicClassical musicDVD'sVHS VideosIn TheatersToysBabyComputer HardwareComputer & Video GamesElectronicsPhotoSoftwareTools & HardwareGarden / Outdoor LivingKitchenCell Phones & Servicefor