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To Engineer Is Human

The Role of Failure in Successful Design

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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 History & Culture Technology Civil Engineering
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As someone with an interest in engineering, I thought this book would be a great addition to the reading list. However I felt that most of examples are basically common sense applied back to engineering. For example the author uses the analogy of planning a trip and the different considerations required to make the point that there are many alternatives in design. The examples are painfully obvious and, worse still, over laboured. Rarely do I not finish a book but I couldn't bare to lose another minute of life to this one.

Really boring!

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