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To Engineer Is Human

The Role of Failure in Successful Design

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To Engineer Is Human

By: Henry Petroski
Narrated by: Matthew Boston
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About this listen

How did a simple design error cause one of the great disasters of the 1980s - the collapse of the walkways at the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel? What made the graceful and innovative Tacoma Narrows Bridge twist apart in a mild wind in 1940?

How did an oversized waterlily inspire the magnificent Crystal Palace, the crowning achievement of Victorian architecture and engineering? These are some of the failures and successes that Henry Petroski, author of the acclaimed The Pencil, examines in this engaging, wonderfully literate book.

More than a series of fascinating case studies, To Engineer Is Human is a work that looks at our deepest notions of progress and perfection, tracing the fine connection between the quantifiable realm of science and the chaotic realities of everyday life.

©1992 Henry Petroski (P)2018 Tantor Engineering History Architecture Civil Engineering

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repetitive and a little pointless

there isn't really anything of substance said/written in this book, which is a shame because it's a very interesting topic. The same few points are repeated endlessly and the utterly bizzare tangent of nursery rhyme after nursery rhyme to illustrate engineering is contrived nonsense.

a missed opportunity.

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