They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators by Harold Evans

They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators Reviews

• 
  Dan Walker

  This is a very subversive book. The popular myth is that invention is what drives the modern world. That monkish scientists, cloistered in tiny labs, create our wealth and lifestyle. Nothing could be further from reality, as this book demonstrates.
  
  For example, Robert Fulton invented neither the steam engine nor the paddle wheel. But he was the first to start a working steamboat service on the Hudson River. The fact that his working model was developed while on holiday with another man's wife just makes the story spicy. I don't recall that fact from my history books!
  
  The point is that it is INNOVATION that improves our world. It is people applying ideas, usually someone else's ideas, in a practical way. Modern conveniences were developed by a combination of serendipity, sweat, and naked greed. It isn't love of "pure" science that drives men to work all hours of the night trying to figure out how to thread a needle. It is a desire to be the first to market and make the most money.
  
  Thomas Edison is considered to be America's greatest inventor. But he wasn't some holy man living on a Himalayan mountaintop. His innovation was to systematize invention to create a dependable stream of ideas that could be sold on the mass market. In other words, he wanted to make money. Apple has done nothing except emulate him.
  
  The subversive part is that this contradicts the entire premise behind government-enforced patents. We need patents, we are told, to protect the nerdy scientist who is clueless about how the real world works and needs government protection of the income streams from his inventions so that he will keep churning out science. Otherwise he would neglect the test tubes in his tiny, dank lab. This story is false because no such "scientist" exists. Useful ideas don't come from "pure" science. They come from people trying to find practical solutions to real problems, most often with the goal of earning Scrooge McDuck-size piles of money. All patents do is impede the flow of ideas so necessary for innovation to occur (it usually requires several people working together for the ideas to really germinate), slow improvements in our world, and keep lawyers employed. In fact, the sewing machine industry nearly sank under a pile of suits and countersuits filed by the various "inventors" until they finally agreed to drop all patent claims simultaneously.
  
  The book suffers from a meander through some black lady's world (not clear what her innovation was). It also spends time on Barbie (she looks the way she does for a reason). And Ted Turner's story is interesting - his business skills cannot be doubted but he feels the need to share WHERE he was when he realized that CNN had totally defeated its competitors.
  
  So read the book. Learn the stories that don't follow the predetermined historical narrative that came from my high school history textbook.
• 
  Sivaram Velauthapillai

  This is the review for the audio version of this book, which I believe it is abbreviated so not sure what is missing. Overall, well worth checking out this book for anyone interested in business/economic history.
  
  The book covers numerous advancements made by Americans over the last few centuries. Most readers, including me, would have read books/articles on most of the inventions/developments made by America so some may think the book doesn't offer much. But I was pleasantly surprised to read about topics or details that aren't widely discussed.
  
  I think one of the strengths of this book is that it covers a diverse set of inventions/advancements over several hundred years; it doesn't focus on specific time period or type of invention. If you are looking for highly detailed background on inventions, this book probably isn't for you (each topic is only around 10 pages long). Some may not like this, almost random short, coverage but I like it.
  
  This is the type of book that will expand your knowledge horizon. For instance, in addition to the important, but widely covered, revolutions such as Edison's light bulb/electricity and the intercontinental railroad, the book touches on topics such as the Colt revolver (gun), CNN (all-news cable news), and Ebay (online shopping site). Most people may know quite a bit about Google but how many know much about Ebay? I have read about railroads in the 1800's before but didn't know much about the Colt revolver (which played a big, albeit brutal, part in the 1800's).
  
  If you want a gain a cursory understanding of major American inventions over the last few hundread years, you can't go wrong with this book.
• 
  Steve

  This book is about Innovators, not inventors, although some innovators are inventors too. Innovators are the ones that can take a new idea and make something of it (Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Ted Turner, etc). This book is about a diverse group of innovators, in all areas, from powered flight to venture capital, credit ratings to MRI's, and what got them to where their innovation was recognized. This book gives you the history of these innovators and the people around them (both the good and the bad parts of their history) as well as a little bit of the innovation that they were behind. There is a lot of information here, be prepared for a lot of reading, but it is very interesting stuff, and written in a way that you can put it down for a while and pick it back up again with no problem.
  
• 
  Roger

  I would give it a 4 for content but 3 for readability. The early chapters read like a history encyclopedia but the later chapters, which focused more on technology, read more like a science textbook. Overall, I learned some new things - like there was at least as much technology theft as cooperative inventions and innovations. Kind of a slog to read and overly detailed, like a textbook.
• 
  Mike

  This book made me realize that we take for granted all the technological innovations around us. Many of the things that we are so used to enjoying everyday are made possible only through a lot of struggle and Sacrifice by very determined people.
• 
  Kimball Ungerman

  Fun to read, interesting and inspiring. The publisher wrote: The flourishing of America is the story of an inventive people with a mystic faith in technology, from the early settlers who used windmills as a way of getting water on the Great Plains to the electronic whiz kids of the Internet. Innovation, practical inventiveness, is the main force behind America's preeminence. But there is more to this extraordinary history. Harold Evans traces how the innovators have time and again proved to be democratizers, driven not by greed but by an ambition to be remembered. They translated the nation's political ideals into economic reality.
• 
  Mandy

  I'll be honest, I didn't read all of this book, but it's set up in a case-study type format, so you don't really need to. It was really interesting to read about how certain businesses and institutions, like Sesame Street, came into being. Some really interesting perspectives on ingenuity in general. Recommended to me by a neighbor who is a business professor. A really interesting read. I guess to be honest, it should be on my read and to-read lists!
• 
  Valerie

  My favorite non-fiction book! Harold Evans profiles 50 of the greatest innovators this country has ever seen. The genius and spirit found in all of these is sorely needed today. This should be required reading in high school, college, and anybody working for the government. These men made America great.
• 
  Ben Walker

  A coffee table book. It's got stories of a variety of different inventors. I checked it out from the library only for the Sam Insull chapter -- it was great. A short bio of an amazing man. Highly recommended. Lower star rating because it's not a book to take on a plane/in a backpack and had other stories that didn't interest me.
• 
  Stuart Bobb

  Anybody pursuing a career that will involve intellectual property should read this book. Anybody attempting patent reform should read this book. Anybody wanting to understand why some of the best technologies never quite made it or why the second mouse got the cheese, as it were, should read this book.
• 
  Bryan

  Think of it as The Rest of the Story for the New Yorker set.
• 
  Jeff

  This is an awesome bedtime reading book for parents with big kids.
• 
  Will Sync

  Corporate crime and thief's are alive and well... same as it ever was.
• 
  daniel dirnfeld

  Most interesting book
• 
  Leslie

  Didn't grab me. It is a little dry for my taste.
• 
  David

  Won't read this straight through -- a sip and dip book. Very heavy and awkward, too.