Technology & Engineering

22705 books

Wings of Fury: From Vietnam to the Gulf War the Astonishing True Stories of America's Elite

$22.95

Report copyright infringementby Robert K. Wilcox (Author), Eileen Behan (Author)They are America's best fighter pilots -- from the Navy, Air Force, and Marines. Heroes who push the envelope with their machines, their bodies, and the will to fight and win on their... WINGS OF FURY Here, these airborne warriors reveal themselves as never before. Ride shotgun with TOPGUN pilot Dale "Snort" Snodgrass as he becomes the first student pilot ever to land an F-14 Tomcat on an aircraft carrier. Silver ...

Boiling Energy: Community Healing Among the Kalahari Kung

$70.20

Report copyright infringementby Richard Katz (Author)This account of the ancient healing dances practiced by the Kung people of southern Africa's Kalahari Desert includes vivid eyewitness descriptions of night-long healing dances and interviews with Kung healers.Back JacketThis account of the ancient healing dances practiced by the Kung people of southern Africa's Kalahari Desert includes vivid eyewitness descriptions of night-long healing dances and interviews with Kung Healers. ...

The Causes of Wars: And Other Essays, Second Edition, Enlarged

$66.60

Report copyright infringementby Michael Howard (Author)Public consciousness of the threat of nuclear war is rising steadily. Responses to the nuclear dilemma are conflicting and often confusing. Never have we been more in need of information and perspective, for if we wish to avoid war we must understand it. Michael Howard offers an analysis of our present predicament by discussing those issues that cause war and make peace. His book includes an examination of nuclear strategy today, views of...

$73.80

Report copyright infringementby Martin Van Creveld (Author)Many books have been written about strategy, tactics, and great commanders. This is the first book to deal exclusively with the nature of command itself, and to trace its development over two thousand years from ancient Greece to Vietnam. It treats historically the whole variety of problems involved in commanding armies, including staff organization and administration, communications methods and technologies, weaponry, and logistics. ...

$59.40

Report copyright infringementby Sunny Y. Auyang (Author)Genetic engineering, nanotechnology, astrophysics, particle physics: We live in an engineered world, one where the distinctions between science and engineering, technology and research, are fast disappearing. This book shows how, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, the goals of natural scientists--to discover what was not known--and that of engineers--to create what did not exist--are undergoing an unprecedented convergence. Sunny Y...

The Animal Estate: The English and Other Creatures in Victorian England

$73.80

Report copyright infringementby Harriet Ritvo (Author)When we think about the Victorian age, we usually envision people together with animals: the Queen and her pugs, the sportsman with horses and hounds, the big game hunter with his wild kill, the gentleman farmer with a prize bull. Harriet Ritvo here gives us a vivid picture of how animals figured in English thinking during the nineteenth century and, by extension, how they served as metaphors for human psychological needs and sociopolitica...

$22.95

Report copyright infringementby Stephen Coonts (Author)Stephen Coonts, America's foremost writer of aviation fiction, presents the most dramatic true stories ever told of men in aeriel combat. From World War I to Vietnam, here are full-throttle accounts of war at its worst--and men at their best. American, British, German, Japanese--join their aces to skim the clouds in wood-and-fabric biplanes; shave the treetops in adrenaline-fueled helicopter battles; and scream off an aircraft carrier's s...

Maize and Grace: Africa's Encounter with a New World Crop, 1500-2000

$57.60

Report copyright infringementby James C. McCann (Author)Sometime around 1500 AD, an African farmer planted a maize seed imported from the New World. That act set in motion the remarkable saga of one of the world's most influential crops--one that would transform the future of Africa and of the Atlantic world. Africa's experience with maize is distinctive but also instructive from a global perspective: experts predict that by 2020 maize will become the world's most cultivated crop. James C. Mc...

Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America

$46.08

Report copyright infringementby Giles Slade (Author)Listen to a short interview with Giles SladeHost: Chris Gondek Producer: Heron & Crane If you've replaced a computer lately--or a cell phone, a camera, a television--chances are, the old one still worked. And chances are even greater that the latest model won't last as long as the one it replaced. Welcome to the world of planned obsolescence--a business model, a way of life, and a uniquely American invention that this eye-opening book ex...

Flying Buttresses, Entropy, and O-Rings: The World of an Engineer

$48.96

Report copyright infringementby James L. Adams (Author)From Teflon to Velcro, from bandwidths to base pairs, the artifacts of engineering and technology reflect the broad scope--and frustrating limitations--of our imagination. Best-selling author James Adams takes readers on an enlightening tour of this exciting world, demystifying such endeavors as design, research, and manufacturing.Back JacketThis is a book about engineering. It examines engineering in a broad context, it is to some extent...

$40.32

Report copyright infringementby Spencer R. Weart (Author)After a tsunami destroyed the cooling system at Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, triggering a meltdown, protesters around the world challenged the use of nuclear power. Germany announced it would close its plants by 2022. Although the ills of fossil fuels are better understood than ever, the threat of climate change has never aroused the same visceral dread or swift action. Spencer Weart dissects this paradox, demonstrating that a...

$97.20

Report copyright infringementby Jo Guldi (Author)Roads to Power tells the story of how Britain built the first nation connected by infrastructure, how a libertarian revolution destroyed a national economy, and how technology caused strangers to stop speaking. In early eighteenth-century Britain, nothing but dirt track ran between most towns. By 1848 the primitive roads were transformed into a network of highways connecting every village and island in the nation--and also dividing them in unfo...

The Ghost of the Executed Engineer: Technology and the Fall of the Soviet Union

$61.20

Report copyright infringementby Loren Graham (Author)Stalin ordered his execution, but here Peter Palchinsky has the last word. As if rising from an uneasy grave, Palchinsky's ghost leads us through the miasma of Soviet technology and industry, pointing out the mistakes he condemned in his time, the corruption and collapse he predicted, the ultimate price paid for silencing those who were not afraid to speak out. The story of this visionary engineer's life and work, as Loren Graham relates it...

Building the Timber Frame House: The Revival of a Forgotten Craft

$27.00

Report copyright infringementby Tedd Benson (Author), James Gruber (With), Jamie Page (Illustrator)For centuries, post-and-beam construction has proved to be one of the most durable building techniques. It is being enthusiastically revived today not only for its sturdiness but because it can be easily insulated, it is attractive, and it offers the builder the unique satisfaction of working with timbers. Building the Timber Frame House is the most comprehensive manual available on the techniqu...

Secret Empire: Eisenhower, the CIA, and the Hidden Story of America's Space Espionage

$27.99

Report copyright infringementby Philip Taubman (Author)In a brief period of explosive, top-secret innovation during the 1950s, a small group of scientists, engineers, businessmen, and government officials rewrote the book on airplane design and led the nation into outer space. Led by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, they invented the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes and the first reconnaissance satellites that revolutionized spying, proved that the missile gap was a myth, and protected the United Stat...

The Invention That Changed the World: How a Small Group of Radar Pioneers Won the Second World War and Launched a Technological Revolution

$32.99

Report copyright infringementby Robert Buderi (Author)From Simon & Schuster, The Invention That Changed the World explores how a small group of radar pioneers won the second World War and launched a technical revolution. The technology that was created to win World War II--radar--has revolutionized the modern world. This is the fascinating story of the inventors and their inventions. Number of Pages: 576 Dimensions: 1.44 x 9.12 x 6.24 IN Publication ...

A Whale Hunt: How a Native American Village Did What No One Thought It Could

$19.95

Report copyright infringementby Robert Sullivan (Author)For centuries the hunting of the whale was what defined the Makah, a Native American tribe in Neah Bay, but when commercial whaling drove the gray whale to near extinction in the 1920s, the Makah voluntarily discontinued their tradition and hung up their harpoons. In 1994, after the gray whale was taken off the endangered species list, the Makah decided to hunt again. The problem was that all the old whalers were dead -- no one knew how ...

The Space Environment: Implications for Spacecraft Design - Revised and Expanded Edition

$159.03

Report copyright infringementby Alan C. Tribble (Author)The breakup of the Space Shuttle Columbia as it reentered Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003, reminded the public--and NASA--of the grave risks posed to spacecraft by everything from insulating foam to space debris. Here, Alan Tribble presents a singular, up-to-date account of a wide range of less conspicuous but no less consequential environmental effects that can damage or cause poor performance of orbiting spacecraft. Conveying a ...

Shaping Strategy: The Civil-Military Politics of Strategic Assessment

$79.20

Report copyright infringementby Risa Brooks (Author)Good strategic assessment does not guarantee success in international relations, but bad strategic assessment dramatically increases the risk of disastrous failure. The most glaring example of this reality is playing out in Iraq today. But what explains why states and their leaders are sometimes so good at strategic assessment--and why they are sometimes so bad at it? Part of the explanation has to do with a state's civil-military relations....

The Cattle of the Sun: Cows and Culture in the World of the Ancient Greeks

$135.00

Report copyright infringementby Jeremy McInerney (Author)Though Greece is traditionally seen as an agrarian society, cattle were essential to Greek communal life, through religious sacrifice and dietary consumption. Cattle were also pivotal in mythology: gods and heroes stole cattle, expected sacrifices of cattle, and punished those who failed to provide them. The Cattle of the Sun ranges over a wealth of sources, both textual and archaeological, to explore why these animals mattered to the G...

Understanding War: Essays on Clausewitz and the History of Military Power

$90.63

Report copyright infringementby Peter Paret (Author)These essays provide an authoritative introduction to Carl von Clausewitz and enlarge the history of war by joining it to the history of ideas and institutions and linking it with intellectual biography.Back JacketThese essays provide an authoritative introduction to Carl von Clausewitz and enlarge the history of war by joining it to the history of ideas and institutions and linking it with intellectual biography. Reflecting Peter Paret's th...

$63.27

Report copyright infringementby Dan Reiter (Author)Why do some countries choose to end wars short of total victory while others fight on, sometimes in the face of appalling odds? How Wars End argues that two central factors shape war-termination decision making: information about the balance of power and the resolve of one's enemy, and fears that the other side's commitment to abide by a war-ending peace settlement may not be credible. Dan Reiter explains how information about combat outcome...

Worse Than a Monolith: Alliance Politics and Problems of Coercive Diplomacy in Asia

$76.95

Report copyright infringementby Thomas J. Christensen (Author)In brute-force struggles for survival, such as the two World Wars, disorganization and divisions within an enemy alliance are to one's own advantage. However, most international security politics involve coercive diplomacy and negotiations short of all-out war. Worse Than a Monolith demonstrates that when states are engaged in coercive diplomacy--combining threats and assurances to influence the behavior of real or potential advers...

Growth in a Traditional Society: The French Countryside, 1450-1815

$124.83

Report copyright infringementby Philip T. Hoffman (Author)Philip Hoffman shatters the widespread myth that traditional agricultural societies in early modern Europe were socially and economically stagnant and ultimately dependent on wide-scale political revolution for their growth. Through a richly detailed historical investigation of the peasant agriculture of ancien-régime France, the author uncovers evidence that requires a new understanding of what constituted economic growth in such soci...

The Diffusion of Military Power: Causes and Consequences for International Politics

$67.68

Report copyright infringementby Michael C. Horowitz (Author)The Diffusion of Military Power examines how the financial and organizational challenges of adopting new methods of fighting wars can influence the international balance of power. Michael Horowitz argues that a state or actor wishing to adopt a military innovation must possess both the financial resources to buy or build the technology and the internal organizational capacity to accommodate any necessary changes in recruiting, traini...

The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change the World

$19.95

Report copyright infringementby Oliver Morton (Author)A fascinating look at the perils and promise of geoengineering and our potential future on a warming planet The risks of global warming are pressing and potentially vast. The difficulty of doing without fossil fuels is daunting, possibly even insurmountable. So there is an urgent need to rethink our responses to the crisis. To meet that need, a small but increasingly influential group of scientists is exploring proposals for planned human ...

Cities of Knowledge: Cold War Science and the Search for the Next Silicon Valley

$53.01

Report copyright infringementby Margaret O'Mara (Author)What is the magic formula for turning a place into a high-tech capital? How can a city or region become a high-tech powerhouse like Silicon Valley? For over half a century, through boom times and bust, business leaders and politicians have tried to become "the next Silicon Valley," but few have succeeded. This book examines why high-tech development became so economically important late in the twentieth century, and why its magic formula...

Five Days in August: How World War II Became a Nuclear War

$35.93

Report copyright infringementby Michael D. Gordin (Author), Michael D. Gordin (Preface by)Most Americans believe that the Second World War ended because the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan forced it to surrender. Five Days in August boldly presents a different interpretation: that the military did not clearly understand the atomic bomb's revolutionary strategic potential, that the Allies were almost as stunned by the surrender as the Japanese were by the attack, and that not only had expert...

The Next Catastrophe: Reducing Our Vulnerabilities to Natural, Industrial, and Terrorist Disasters

$35.93

Report copyright infringementby Charles Perrow (Author)Charles Perrow is famous worldwide for his ideas about normal accidents, the notion that multiple and unexpected failures--catastrophes waiting to happen--are built into our society's complex systems. In The Next Catastrophe, he offers crucial insights into how to make us safer, proposing a bold new way of thinking about disaster preparedness. Perrow argues that rather than laying exclusive emphasis on protecting targets, we should reduc...

Reliability: Probabilistic Models and Statistical Methods

$57.60

Report copyright infringementby Lawrence Mark Leemis (Author)An elementary introduction to the probabilistic models and statistical methods used by reliability engineers as applied to, for example, electrical or mechanical systems. Leemis offers explanations of how the mathematical models and results apply to engineering design and the analysis of lifetime data sets, with simple, supplementary proofs and derivations provided when necessary. Applications are drawn from a variety of disciplines...

The New Science of Strong Materials: Or Why You Don't Fall Through the Floor

$19.95

Report copyright infringementby James Edward Gordon (Author), Philip de Greff Ball (Introduction by)J. E. Gordon's classic introduction to the properties of materials used in engineering answers some fascinating and fundamental questions about how the structural world around us works. Gordon focuses on so-called strong materials--such as metals, wood, ceramics, glass, and bone--explaining in engaging and accessible terms the unique physical and chemical basis for their inherent structural qua...

Success Through Failure: The Paradox of Design

$19.95

Report copyright infringementby Henry Petroski (Author), Henry Petroski (Preface by)From the acclaimed author and engineer, an engaging and lively account of the surprising secret of great design Design pervades our lives. Everything from drafting a PowerPoint presentation to planning a state-of-the-art bridge embodies this universal human activity. But what makes a great design? In this compelling and wide-ranging look at the essence of invention, distinguished engineer and author Henry Petr...