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

Harold Evans; Gail Buckland; David Lefer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316277665 ISBN 13: 9780316277662

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2004

Synopsis

An illustrated history of American innovators--some well known, some unknown, and all fascinating-- by the author of the bestselling The American Century.

About this title

About the Author:

Gail Buckland is a historian of photography and the author of numerous books. She is currently a Professor of the History of Photography at the Cooper Union in New York City. David Lefer has worked as an investigative reporter at numerous newspapers, including the New York Daily News and Newsday. Harold Evans is the author of the New York Times bestseller The American Century. He was the founding editor of Cond Nast Traveler, editorial director of U.S. News & World Report, and president and publisher of Random House, where he published a record number of bestsellers. He was editor of the London Sunday Times and ofThe Times, and his account of those years, Good Times, Bad Times, was a #1 bestseller in Britain. He lives in New York.

From Publishers Weekly:

Developed in tandem with a four-part PBS series to air in November, Evans's profusely illustrated and elegantly written book offers the same breadth and scope as his previous bestseller, The American Century. Evans, former president and publisher of Random House, profiles 70 of America's leading inventors, entrepreneurs and innovators, some better known than others. Along with such obvious choices as Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and the Wright brothers, Evans profiles Lewis Tappan (an abolitionist who dreamed up the idea of credit ratings), Gen. Georges Doriot (pioneer of venture capital) and Joan Ganz Cooney, of the Children's Television Workshop. From A.P. Giannini (father of consumer banking) to Ida Rosenthal (the Maidenform Bra tycoon), Evans shows innovation as both a product of and a contributor to the grand apparatus of American society. And his spotlight is on the true American elite: the aristocracy of strategic visionaries, creative risk takers and entrepreneurial adventurers thriving in their natural environment, the free-market democracy of the United States. Evans doesn't neglect the latest generation of innovators, among them Google's Larry Page and Sergey Brin. He concludes with a note of caution, pointing out the nation's recent loss of dominance in the hard sciences. But just as Edison was inspired by popular biographies of innovators before him, so might the next generation of scientific and commercial explorers find guidance in Evans's exciting survey. 500 color illus.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0316277665
• ISBN 13: 9780316277662
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 496