Rating: 
Summary: Difficult Read
Review: Although the book has a lot of good content, I found it difficult to read - Lienhard jumps around a lot in his discussions and it's often hard to follow his arguments.
Rating: 
Summary: Genuinely ingenious!
Review: An enjoyable writing style combined with a wealth of interesting facts makes this a book that few would dislike. Every story that glorifies engineers is matched by one showing their shortcomings or failures, providing a book that seems to have a well balanced perspective on the impact of technology on science, not the biased view one might anticipate in a book by an engineer about engineering.The huge volume of assorted facts borders on random trivia, but it is always organised in a logical fashion, and enthusiastically written, so the end result is hardly tedious, but rather a very compelling read. I would love to have access to his radio program if it is anywhere near as good as this book.
Rating:
Summary: This book sits proudly in my book case
Review: As a long time listener of the Engines of our Ingenuity, I've gained a greater appreciation for the wealth of knowledge Dr. Lienhard must possess to be able to articulate the history of engineering, its impact on the world, and its relationship with society, art, and everyday life. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about history and technology and how each affects the other. You will hear about new facts, recognize some others, and see new twists on some you thought you knew. All in all, a very good read.
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Summary: Unique Perspectives on Technology, History, and Culture
Review: I am well into Dr. Lienhard's book but have listened to his radio broadcasts for years. I recently met Dr. Lienhard at a book signing in which he graciously answered questions from an audience and took time to converse with buyers while autographing their purchases. Dr. Lienhard has the knack of bringing the scholar's intellect to the study of culture and technology without the slightest condescension. We briefly discussed Vermeer's use of the "camera obscura" which led to a brief exchange about the inevitability of "photography" and the ways in which it has, in turn, shaped our lives. A fascinating book from an engineer/philosopher.
Rating:
Summary: Liked it a lot but.....
Review: I think I can add very little to the reviews already submitted on this work. That said, I do have one additional observation. If you are familiar with Dr. Lienhard's radio program, you have a taste of what is in store in this book. However, freed from the constraints of time that radio necessarily places, Dr. Lienhard is able to draw broader conclusions and connections among his many subject matter. As a result, anyone expecting to read simple transcripts of the radio program is in for something else. Ideas developed separately in different radio essays are allowed to mingle and merge; to cross-pollenate and create a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. It requires greater commitment from the reader, but the experience is more rewarding for it. While the ideas can sometimes be difficult to follow, this book is a marvelous glimpse of the mind at work.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: If you love hearing The Engines of Our Ingenuity on Public Radio then you will love this book. Professor Lienhard (Professor of Engineering at the University of Houston) is a master storyteller, weaving together tidbits of information and little know facts to explore civilization's machines and how they came to be. I have been anxiously awaiting this book because Lienhard is limited to only about 3 minutes on the radio. In book form I was not at all disappointed. I could hear his deep voice resonating on each page.
Rating:
Summary: From the Airwaves to the Page. . with Smashing Success
Review: Not a Blow by Blow of the Radio Series, but a fresh writing about John Lienhard's unique perspective on Technology, History, and above all. . . Humanity. Beautifully written in a prose style that bespeaks a depth of understanding of the human condition one would expect from a philosopher. . . not an engineer. . . then again. . . John Lienhard is no ordinary engineer.
Rating:
Summary: Liked it a lot but.....
Review: The book itself is an interesting study of the effects of engineering on society. I found the chapters to being very interesting and enjoyed them very much. However the book is let down as it lacks a higher standard of accuracy that one would need in a public talk on the radio. For example he talks about the Saqqara Bird and states that it shows evidence of an ancient Egyptian airplane. This is quite disputed as tests have shown that if it were a glider, it would be badly balanced, have some traces of a tail and require more spiral stability. Most people suggest that it was probably a child's toy or a weather vane. I found this out by doing a quick search on the net just now. The writer should have done this himself.
Also writer seems to be quite prejudice to the military, he makes some sweeping statement that war speeds up invention and states that there is not a shred of supporting evidence for this. He then tries to show it by talking about air flight speed. He then shows a graph that the rate speeds have gone up regardless of the political changes. Yet even he does state that some of these speeds were by the military. I would say that his statements show that there is some supporting evidence. He also states that any other technology would do as well. Okay what about submarines, radar and the atomic bomb. All these were developed for the military. Not to mention inventions that have only military value like artillery.
Rating:
Summary: milestone classic on technology and culture
Review: The first thing I want to say about this book is: about time!!! John Lienhard is a philosopher who has been using his daily public radio broadcasts to share his wonderful meditations on art, science and humanity. He reads with a inspirational tone, and often his meditations wander into territories unforeseen. I remember one episode where Leinhard starts by talking about a tabloid column about bigfoot on the north pole, then shelley's frankenstein and then some scientific topic. I remember also with fondness Leinhard's paean to the man who invented leaded gasoline and how significant a technological improvement it was considered at the time (and how maligned his invention is in the modern day). Leinhard writes with a keen sense of historical irony and can transition from one discipline into another with ease. I would compare Leinhard's prose to that of a Francis Bacon, a Carl Sagan or an Edmund Wilson. His writing is at the top of his field, and his mastery of the intracies of engineering, physics or any other scientific field are truly astounding. The 5 minute radio program form forced them to be concise, and frequently I've been impressed by how succinctly he can convey an entire life of a scientist in less than 5 minutes: the tragedies and triumphs. Perhaps in book form these meditations won't seem as remarkable. (I compare it with Garison Keilor, whose wonderfully witty spoken prose hangs limp on the book page). However, I've read many of his essays at his web site at University of Houston, and there is still the same excitement and vigor in the written prose. My only complaint is that they are not available for download in audio form. I am not a scientist, but Lienhard makes me want to be. He has helped me to see the connections between art and science, life and science, god and science. I can't tell you how many times I've been driving in a daze and how Mr. Lienhard's 5 minute meditation suddenly fills my life with clarity.
Rating:
Summary: Homo Technologicus
Review: When we use the word "technology," we are likely to think of airplanes, computers, and factories. That isn't wrong, of course, but the truth is that unless you are naked and sitting in a pristine landscape, technology is all around you, and even if you are naked and sitting in a pristine landscape, as a citizen of the twenty-first century, you will not be able to abandon thinking patterns based on the technology you know. Pencils, books, and Post-it notes are all indelible parts of our lives. The broader outlook upon technology is what John Lienhard has dwelled upon during his years of making his Public Radio program which has now been turned into a wide-ranging and stimulating book of the same name, _The Engines of our Ingenuity_ (Oxford University Press). Lienhard's background is that he spent a childhood building model airplanes and models of all the other gadgets of the twentieth century. Then he worked for a half a century as an engineer, and he studied a lot of historical technology. His admiration for our technological expertise (even though he is not blind to its darker side) is almost unbounded, and it is infectious. He contends that what differentiates us and makes us human is our ability to think about tools and put them to use. Lienhard never lectures and is never dull. His sweep of knowledge is confined to seventeen chapters, which he admits is looking at technology like the blind men looked at the elephant. It is as an assortment of disparate facts that this book is most appealing. Lienhard tells of geometry, which had been central to the ivory towers of medieval scholasticism as an exercise in logic, not in practical design. Masons had been able to fashion arches and ribbed vaults, but had done so without mathematical foundation. When geometry and masonry married, a baroque architecture based on exact mathematics emerged. Galileo is supposed to have done experiments (maybe from the Leaning Tower of Pisa) to show that heavy balls and light ones fell at the same rate, but he noted something peculiar. The lighter ball started a little faster than the heavy ball, and then it caught up so that they both fell at the same time. This sounds crazy, but a recent analysis of films of people dropping balls shows that strain of the arm holding a heavy ball induces people to let the lighter one go first, even if they are trying to drop simultaneously. Yes, Galileo did indeed do the experiment, and he accurately reported it. A bird model from third century BCE Egypt turns out not to be a bird model at all. Not only does it lack the legs and painted feathers of other bird models, but it had a vertical rudder instead of a bird tail, and the wing had the cross-section of an airfoil. No one could throw the model, but reproduced in balsa wood, it flew; it was not a model bird but a model airplane. No one knows if it was a model for a bigger version. A German officer visiting the US in 1862 begged a ride on a Union observation balloon. He was excited, an excitement that outlasted his four decades of German military service. He was sixty, but he determined to make balloons that were rigid and navigable. He was count Zeppelin, and his first airship flew in 1900. Countless other examples of how technology has influenced us and vice versa burst from this book. Lienhard is able to tell a great story, he knows what he is talking about, and he conveys a passion for his subject that ought to inspire us to delight in our technological world. He may be telling us only about our technology, but technology is us.
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