Inventing Modern

"Lienhard's genius is in telling the real story of invention."-- Newscientist.com "For a general reader with little knowledge of the history of technology, Inventing Modern offers an exciting, provocative survey uniting the social, the cultural, and the technical. Lienhard encompasses everything from the ironclads of the Civil War to the Art Deco skyscrapers of Manhattan; from a brief but clear introduction to quantum physics and a perceptive comparison of the intellectual styles of Edison, Tesla, and Einstein to the early days of automobiling and the exploits of barnstorming female pilots; from the intricate airship paintings of Charles Dellschau around 1900 to the kinetic sculptures of Alexander Calder; from the technical fantasies of L. Frank Baum to the cybernetic theories of Norbert Wiener."--Jeffrey L. Meikle "From Buck Rogers to the Chrysler Airflow, Lienhard considers a particular strain of American Modernism through the personal lens of his own boyhood. While this book reflects a fascination with how things work, it also is a memoir, replete with subjective, idiosyncratic and deeply nostalgic associations."--Los Angeles Times "A delightful personal memoir, a provocative cultural history, and an instructive guide to science and technology--a splendid book that entertains, challenges and informs in equal measure."--Samuel C. Florman, author of The Existential Pleasures of Engineering "This is vintage Lienhard: intellectually cosmopolitan and curious, wide-ranging and almost breathless, with an ability to knit together events and people into a mosaic that, like all good history, is greater than the sum of its parts, and all in a voice that is so rhythmical that the reader is drawn along almost involuntarily."--Richard J. Blackett, Andrew Jackson Professor of History, Vanderbilt University "Lienhard is a story-teller who informs and enchants. His book carries us on a riveting journey with twentieth-century technologies that created the worldview called modernity. In learning about these roots of modern, we learn about ourselves."--Stanley Joel Reiser, Griff T. Ross Professor of Humanities and Technology in Health Care at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston " 'A good read' is not the first phrase that comes to mind in discussing most academic books, but in this case, it is well-deserved praiseA more fascinating, informative, or enjoyable introduction to science, technology, and modern science would be hard to imagine."--Choice