Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867-1914 and Their Lasting Impact (Technical Revolutions and Their Lasting Impact)

Good book, easy read. His thesis is that the period from about 1860 to 1915 (give or take) was the most inventive in history, and that many things we take for granted now were invented then and only modified since. I think he proves his point handily, at least in the United States, although he does dip into Europe here and there. What he doesn't cover is why--why was this period so inventive? As an engineer, I noted that occasionally he got his units wrong. The Kindle version that I read almost appears to have been a scan of the hard copy converted to text, because there are occasional missing words and instead of 1.2 there would be i.2 and that sort, but these errors are minor. I do wish he'd used footnotes for references rather than (put the references inline like this).And the index has the page numbers in the hard copy, which are useless on Kindle. I don't think they should charge what they do for the Kindle book given the poor conversion from hardcopy to ebook--oh, well, this is distressingly common these days--no one reformats properly for Kindle. But, all those annoyances aside, I was deeply fascinated with his insights into how modern inventions, from the telephone, light bulb, radio, public transportation, and the automobile (and the airplane) all came out of this period. For the engineer in me, he had lots of satisfying detail. I do recommend this book for the technically-minded--a fascinating tour through technical history.

If you enjoy history, economics, or science, Vaclav Smil's remarkable ability to merge all three disciplines will give the reader a fresh, and fascinating perspective on the "Age of Synergy", when many of the most important inventions of our current time where created.The best thing about this book is that it changed my perspective and thinking. Not just about the Age of Synergy (the period between 1867 and 1914), but about our present day and age. I find it strangely reassuring to know that another generation successfully endured, and prospered during a period of profound change.The conventional thinking of today is that we are living in a world that is changing at an ever increasing rate, never before experienced by mankind, and we are understandably stressed and anxious because of that. After reading this book, I am not so sure that is accurate - it seems the Age of Synergy shouldered much greater change.I do have to mention one shortcoming of this book. The kindle edition has a number of stupid typos, often taking the form of "i.3" to refer to table "1.3". While nothing serious, and obviously the fault of the editor and not the author, they should not be here, as they interrupt the flow of the work. Seems to me the publisher could correct these errors and issue an update to those of use with ebooks.I shall definitely carry on and read the second book in this series (typos or not).Thank you Mr. Smil, for writing such an interesting, informative and enjoyable book!

I have been interested in reading about the Industrial Revolution. Vaclav Smil has written the best book on the subject I have found. Now the entire Industrial Revolution actually started with the steam engine in the 18th century whereas Mr. Smil concentrates on just the period 1867-1914. This is really what many call the Second Industrial Revolution, but it was absolutely critical for the development of the modern world. What is dramatically different about Mr. Smil's book is that it is truly technical. Most of the other histories are written by historians who are more writers than scientists/engineers. This guy is the real deal. He understands the technical nitty gritty and explains by highlighting the most important technical points (it would be impossible to treat everything in detail). And what a bibliography. Wow! One aspect of his book is dedication to examining things from the energy point of view. You won't find this in most other books and it provides another dimension to his writing. I read his follow-on book for the 20th century which is equally outstanding. My personal feeling is that Europe has lost the formula for innovation that it once had and is going to pay a terrible economic price. See [...]

I sampled this book on a whim on my Kindle and then bought the whole thing, even though it was a steep $20 plus. Smil does an excellent job describing how critical technologies such as electrical transmission, motors, and lighting actually evolved, far beyond the Edison-invented-the-lightbulb stories we have all heard. I am just a couple of chapters in, but I am confident in saying if you are leaning towards buying this book, you probably should. He goes into more detail than you may want concerning such things as the efficiency of various electrical technologies, yet somehow he makes the story of leaps and steady improvements rather mesmerizing.Quite striking is his major thesis that the technological revolution before WWI was sui generis, a singularity in its own right. He explains how the technologies developed then are still very much with us and unlikely to be superceded anytime soon. This is a good antidote to the presentism of the Age of Information and AI enthusiasts. Unless you are already an engineer, you are likely to learn a lot about basic technologies we take for granted. IP lawyers may also find the various patent struggles of interest.

The content of the book is terrific. The editing of this book by Oxford "University Press" is atrocious! Missing articles, left out words, disagreement of subject and verb, and other gross errors are there by the hundreds. It reads like a rough draft from an author for whom English is not even a second language (probably true, in this case). I don't blame the author, but I expect better from Oxford. Transforming the Twentieth Century by the same author and publisher suffers from the same ills.

This is a very rich book but I didn’t find it as an easy or engaging read however the amount of knowledge and information kept me going till the end

A theory goes that innovation is ponctuated by sudden bursts of revolutionary ideas that mark Humanity for several decades. The author, Vaclav Smil, defends the opinion that the two generations before WWI is such an epoch. The reason is that these two generations have seen the emergence of brand new ideas (e.g., electricity as a network, automobile), their rapid development in the economy, and the rapid development of a socio-technic structure that remains largely intact throughout the 20th century. As usual with this author, the thesis is abundently illustrated with data, and even with first-hand data as he draws a lot on period documents like patents or testimonies. As usual also, this book overlaps with many other books by the same author, but the overall result offers so coherent a view that this must not be seen as a problem. Indeed, the genesis of a great part of our modern way of life is depicted in this book. The author contends that techniques shape our society as much as politics or as social evolution. I fully agree, and I recommend this book for everybody is curious of the story of our way of life.This book has a companion book on how the 20th century transformed these innovations into what we know presently, and on other ideas that also shaped the 20th century but do not truely belong to the two pre WWI generations (e.g., computers). The two books can be read independently, in whatever order. I recommend both.

Apesar de eu não ser cientista nem ter formação técnica em nehuma das áreas cobertas e o livro tratar o tema em muitos momentos como registro de dados, com datas, nomes e números em profusão, a leitura é deliciosa e prende. Entender como chegamos no nosso modo de vida atual e poder associar o que aconteceu com fatos históricos posteriores e contemporâneos ao período retratado é maravilhoso.Muitas vezes me senti capaz de responder à tradicional pergunta de adolescente: "Estudar química (ou física, ou qualquer matéria "chata") para quê?".Outro aprendizado é sobre como tudo o que faz a nossa vida confortável, que muitas vezes temos a impressão que são itens que acompanham naturalmente o mundo quando nascemos, teve que ser trabalhado arduamente por centenas ou milhares de pessoas dedicadas durante muito tempo. E que essas pessoas se apoiaram no trabalho e pesquisa de outras centenas ou milhares de pessoas que vieram antes delas, como já tinha constatado Newton em sua famosa frase sobre estar sobre os ombros de gigantes.Maravilhoso.