Ebook The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention, by William Rosen
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The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention, by William Rosen
Ebook The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention, by William Rosen
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Review
“This book has a crackling energy to it, often as riveting as it is educational.†(Los Angeles Times) “The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention is a sneaky history―ostensibly about the origins of the steam engine, though actually about much more. . . . Rosen is a natural and playful storyteller, and his digressions both inform the narrative and lend it an eccentric and engaging rhythm." (New York Times) “A fascinating, wide-ranging narrative. . . . A staggering work of epistemological research." (Kirkus)“Rosen has a facility for the telling anecdote and the quirky aside. Open nearly any page of the book and you’ll learn tidbits like that Abraham Lincoln had a love of things mechanical and is the only American president to be awarded a patent (for air chambers that add buoyancy to steam ships and other boats). . . . The Most Powerful Idea in the World is enjoyable reading, although it does go into a lot of detail about steam engines, and you will learn more about how they work than you might expect.†(Bill Gates, Best Books of 2013)
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About the Author
William Rosen spent nearly twenty-five years as editor or publisher at Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and the Free Press before beginning to research and write his own books.
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Product details
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: University of Chicago Press; Reprint edition (March 15, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0226726347
ISBN-13: 978-0226726342
Product Dimensions:
6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.4 out of 5 stars
107 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#28,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Others have given an general overview of this book; no need to repeat that. Several have noted that if you are interested in steam engines, this book won't help you to understand them. A major flaw is the lack of explanatory drawings and diagrams to supplement the original drawings from patent applications. But this isn't a book about how steam engines work, so that lack can be forgiven. What can't are the errors in fact. I was reading happily along, marvelling at the toys of Alexandrian and enjoying the sweeping scope of the narrative, until we rolled into the Elizabethan period, an era I happen to know something about. There the train drove right off the tracks. The capsule biography of Francis Bacon is not just wrong, it's bizarrely, stupefyingly wrong. Rosen must have copied it from one of the Rosicrucian websites he rightly makes fun of in a footnote. He cites the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for his Bacon data, but that article is, of course, perfectly correct. OK, it's just one short biography, not central (quite) to the theme of the book, but it is so egregiously bad that the author's credibility evaporated in a flash. Francis Bacon is a major historical figure. If his bio is wrong, why should I believe the stories about George Stephenson or the more minor contributors to the development of early steam engines? From that point forward, I started skimming and taking it all with a grain of salt. The central thesis - that copyright/patent law was essential to the industrial revolution - is interesting. But I'll have to read another book to actually learn about the inventors and inventions mentioned in this one.
Great book, not what I expected. Rosen's history of invention in the steam age is fascinating and detailed. His greatest point is that invention and ingenuity thrive under certain conditions and he shows how legal, cultural, and other factors helped create those conditions in the UK and allowed for the birth of the steam age. If you are interested in modern energy policy, human innovation, mechanical engineering, etc you'll love this book. I was not convinced that I'd enjoy a book about the invention and improvements to steam engines but Rosen's narrative is great and the stories are compelling.
A densely written book with many detours from the original story of steam technology, most of which are relevant. Considerable economic theory and constant reference to the politics of the day and the great thinkers of that time. Makes a compelling argument for the patent system. If you can follow all the twists and turns as well as re-reading segments to understand the logic, you will arrive at a more fulsome understanding of the Industrial Revolution. Steam technology underpins this book, but it is actually about the system and people that produced it. A bit of work, but worth the read. This is a Big Picture story
This book is an attempt to give a reply to a complex question: why the Industrial Revolution started in England between the 18th and the 19th century and not in another place or in another time, for example in Classic Greece or ancient China. The Author analyzes the sociological, hystorical and geopolitical circumstances that caused the explosion of inventions and innovations in engineering that shaped the industrial world of today, using the development of the steam engine (from Papin to Stephenson) and its application as leit-motif. According to the author the key factor in this development was the evolution of the patent system, that is at the basis of the definition of intellectual property and the economical exploitation of human ingenuity. The narration starts slowly, and personally I find it even a bit verbose, as the Author himself practically admits. At midlength the narration gains momentum and becomes a whirlwind of intertwined inventions and inventors. It gives numerous hints for thinking and demonstrates (one more time) that development is a matter of persons who can grow up intellectually and economically only if the surrounding environments foster and nurtures them.
This book is awesome! Excellent history of steam and steam engine development. However, the Epilogue goes totally off the rails and into a discussion about climate change. I'd give this book 5 stars, but after reading that section, the author clearly has a defined opinion on the whole climate change subject, and it's nonsense. However, if you ignore that (and you should), this book is well written, very well organized, and was an excellent read.
Ties the threads of technology,science,politics,law & history together in a well written & structured way.It must have been difficult for the author not to digress into any of the many fascinating sub-stories.(How were boiler's soldered, how were technical papers distributed, how did the banking-credit system work.....)There's enough detail to engage each type of reader (I now know why steam locomotives chuff) while not breaking the narrative thread.I'm reading this book a second time after reading the bibliography & realizing what this E-book (& other E-media like it) needs (thru no fault of the author). It needs a LinkR so I can digress as I read into sub-stories (supporting content) that interest me but that if were included in the book would burden it's utility.A LinkR app would work differently for different users:1. It would post process the book & it's biblio, perhaps tweaked for my interests & insert links in the text.2. For authors, perhaps a Word plug-in that would permit them to efficiently fine, sort & link relevant content, perhaps tagged for user classes..3. Commercially a LinkR has value (cookies have crumbs...Google) to both sellers of content & to authors(think of a LinkR as your personal app-bot that parses your E-content for your interests)& Here I digress: Thank-you Mr. Rosen a thoroughly enjoyable book.
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