Product Description
Humans are builders–we make structures to span rivers, to connect points of land, to offer shelter. Indeed, throughout history, civilizations have created structures of such immense scale, requiring such tremendous resources, that they might have been thought impossible. From the Taj Mahal to the Suez Canal, from Solomon’s Temple to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, these feats of macro-engineering are a testament to the creativity and foresight of engineers, architects, … More >>
Building the World : An Encyclopedia of the Great Engineering Projects in History
Tags: Building, Encyclopedia, Engineering, engineering projects, feats, foresight, Great, great engineering, History, immense scale, macro engineering, Projects, suez canal, trans alaska pipeline, WorldRelated posts
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This monumental two-volume encyclopedia of great engineering projects will be of interest to a great variety of readers.
The book takes the reader on a kaleidoscopic journey through time and space. The narrative spans a period of 30 centuries–from the completion of Solomon’s Temple in 960 B.C. to the completion of the Big Dig in 2007. The projects extend to six continents–from Egypt’s Aswan Dam, to India’s Taj Mahal and North America`s Alaska Highway. The technologies represented range from “no-tech” in the founding of Baghdad, to “low-tech” in the Protective Dikes and Land Reclamation in Holland, and to “high-tech” with NASA and the Apollo Program.
The book will be captivating to the general public as well as to experts. For example, having lived a dozen years in Paris practically in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, this reviewer naturally considered himself well-informed about this monument and its history. But I learned a great deal from the book. In “Building the World,” one finds out that the Tower’s construction in the 1880s was opposed by some of France’s leading artists–including the writers Alexandre Dumas and Emile Zola, and the composer Charles Gounod. They signed a petition calling the Eiffel Tower a monstrosity. Originally the Eiffel Tower was meant to be torn down after 20 years; but it still stands proudly today. And it has been visited by over 200 million people.
The authors obviously selected with great care the 41 macro-engineering projects that appear in the book, and the quality of the documentation is impressive. “Building the World” is a magnificent piece of work.
Rating: 5 / 5