When Technology Fails: Significant Technological Disasters, Accidents, and Failures of the Twentieth Century

Rating:
Summary: Requisite Reading
Review: A most excellent compilation. Thought provoking and sobering material. Should be requisite reading for any Engineer, Project Manager, Operations Director, etc. Would especially recommend it as required reading for Engineering Students. The work often chronicles how various failures were first attributed to the most apparent superficial causes (i.e., the easy fix), but then only after several more failures were the root causes finally investigated, often at great cost both financially and in terms of human cost. Makes you wonder the next time you rush a project, cut some corners, eat away some margin, take some risks, etc...

Rating:
Summary: Requisite Reading
Review: A most excellent compilation. Thought provoking and sobering material. Should be requisite reading for any Engineer, Project Manager, Operations Director, etc. Would especially recommend it as required reading for Engineering Students. The work often chronicles how various failures were first attributed to the most apparent superficial causes (i.e., the easy fix), but then only after several more failures were the root causes finally investigated, often at great cost both financially and in terms of human cost. Makes you wonder the next time you rush a project, cut some corners, eat away some margin, take some risks, etc...

Rating:
Summary: An absolute "must read" for all technical professionals
Review: A truly riviting book about the many failures of modern time. I couldn't put it down! This book fills in the details of many of the major disasters and accidents that you have read about in the news but provides the reader with the reasons that the technology failed. It's technically accurate without being overly complex. It explains not only what happened in each of the failures, but provides information on why it happened. I found the section on environmental accidents to be thought provoking and insightful. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone working in a technical field.

Rating:
Summary: Impressive
Review: Very useful tools... packs with knowledge definitely a 5-stars materia