How Invention Begins: Echoes of Old Voices in the Rise ... (ISBN 019530599X)

More than academic:
For a while, I was a member of SHOT, the Society for the History of Technology. Although I found a few things of interest, the overwhelming view I gained was of earnest left wing intellecutuals trying to deconstruct everything into nothing. Here is a book that can meet the academic muster but contains more of substance than warmed over social theory. The basic structure of the book is based on the development of...... the book itself, starting from Gutenberg and moving to the mass produced book of today. Along the way two main ideas are explored. First, that necessity is not the mother of invention, desire is the mother of invention. This point is well argued and sensibly made. Second, that every invention is a concantenation of inventions that led to the tipping point when something reached a critical point in which it became the recognizable thing of history. At that tipping point is found the famous or named inventor whose role should neither be slighted or exaggerated. In making these two points as well as developing an approach to the statistics of inventional progress, Lienhard digresses from bookmaking to steam engines, railroads, the role of women and the development of schools. All these digressions are perfectly entertaining and thoughtful. All in all, I fully recommend the book. For my personal taste I would have liked more math in it, like the little bit in the notes at the back that explains why we can blow both cold and hot with our breath. The book is wonderfully illustrated with many illustrations from historic texts.

Invention is rebellion against the status quo.:
Very well written summary of the arc of invention that leads to significant advances. Mr. Lienhard discusses many of the contributing refinements that lead to the development of flight, steam engines, printing, education, libraries and other significant advancements. His premise is that no invention is developed in a vacuum. Many actors contribute to the eventual creation of an invention. Those actors have different motivation and endure considerable hardships on their way to participating in the discovery. These inventors seem to share an underlying theme or notion which Mr. Lienhard identifies with this quote: Inventing means violating some status quo. If we do not exert some freedom from rebellion we do not invent. It might be freedom from external proscription, or it might e freedom from chains forged in our own minds. Al the great inventive epochs of the world have been marked by climates of increased personal liberty. This book is a wonderful read.