Henry Petroski. (2016). The Road Taken: The History and Future of America's Infrastructure. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Henry Petroski. 2016. The Road Taken: The History and Future of America's Infrastructure. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Henry Petroski, The Road Taken: The History and Future of America's Infrastructure. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.

Henry Petroski. The Road Taken: The History and Future of America's Infrastructure. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.

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The Road Taken

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   • bioText: Henry Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of history at Duke University. He is the author of eighteen previous books, including The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance, To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design, Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America, and The Essential Engineer. He lives in North Carolina.
   • name: Henry Petroski

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title

The Road Taken

fullDescription

A renowned historian and engineer explores the past, present, and future of America's crumbling infrastructure.
Acclaimed engineer and historian Henry Petroski explores our core infrastructure from both historical and contemporary perspectives, explaining how essential their maintenance is to America's economic health. Petroski reveals the genesis of the many parts of America's highway system—our interstate numbering system, the centerline that divides roads, and such taken-for-granted objects as guardrails, stop signs, and traffic lights—all crucial to our national and local infrastructure.
A compelling work of history, The Road Taken is also an urgent clarion call aimed at American citizens, politicians, and anyone with a vested interest in our economic well-being. Physical infrastructure in the United States is crumbling, and Petroski reveals the complex and challenging interplay between government and industry inherent in major infrastructure improvement. The road we take in the next decade toward rebuilding our aging infrastructure will in large part determine our future national prosperity.

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: New York Times Book Review
   • content: Petroski provides valuable historical context to inform today's policy debates.
2. • premium: False
   • source: New York Review of Books
   • content: A thorough account of how our highway system got to be what it is.
3. • premium: False
   • source: Kirkus Reviews
   • content: A characteristically eye-opening look at America's infrastructure . . . Anyone with an interest in the way things work will want this book—and will doubtless emerge as a fan of the ever curious author.
4. • premium: False
   • source: Los Angeles Times
   • content: [Petroski] excels at revealing the origins of everyday, utilitarian things. His previous books include histories of the toothpick and the pencil, and his latest contribution bristles with fascinating details about the elements of road design we often overlook.
5. • premium: False
   • source: Wall Street Journal
   • content: Mr. Petroski . . . cherishes roads and bridges, and his book is a loving look at everything-materials, expertise, politics, money, culture-that goes into their creation and maintenance. It is also a passionate appeal to Americans to accept responsibility for keeping their infrastructure safe and viable. . . . A labor of love [by] a lucid writer.
6. • premium: False
   • source: Washington Post
   • content: [Petroski] has a clear eye, a mellifluous prose style and a knack for spicing deep research with personal anecdotes.
7. • premium: False
   • source: Publishers Weekly
   • content: Public infrastructure is often deemed interesting only to policy wonks, but Petroski . . . proves that he can make it accessible and fascinating for a wider readership . . . His book may well move readers to lobby their elected officials.
8. • premium: False
   • source: The Buffalo News
   • content: A compelling work of history written by a guy with a feeling for the humanities and the grit of a practical engineer. (Where did people like him go?) . . . This book is your entry into revitalizing where you live by bringing politicians to task.
9. • premium: False
   • source: Raleigh News & Observer
   • content: In The Road Taken: The History and Future of America's Infrastructure, Henry Petroski, Duke professor of civil engineering and the reliably fascinating author of books about how stuff gets to be stuff, provides the backstory to the American system of roads, streets, interstates and highways. The book is never less than interesting and is often fascinating.
10. • premium: False
    • source: Foreign Affairs
    • content: Timely and insightful...Petroski's book offers a rare engineer's perspective on a debate too often dominated by economists and politicians.
11. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      November 2, 2015
      Public infrastructure is often deemed interesting only to policy wonks, but Petroski (The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance), a professor of history and civil engineering at Duke University, proves that he can make it accessible and fascinating for a wider readership. His goal is to create a more informed electorate that will weigh in with political leaders about long-standing safety issues posed by obsolete and decrepit infrastructure. But the book is more than a laundry list of trouble spots; Petroski offers historical context for today’s challenges, including the debate over whether the federal government or the states should pick up the tab for repair work and new construction. The inclusion of colorful details (Illinois courts once deemed stop signs for city streets a “violation of the right of individuals to cross streets”) prevents the material from coming across as dry. Petroski doesn’t underplay the difficult of making progress in the face of Washington gridlock, but he makes the cost of inaction clear, credibly estimating that “the nation’s degrading infrastructure will cost American households... in excess of $150 trillion” over the next three decades. His book may well move readers to lobby their elected officials.

12. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      November 15, 2015
      A gifted author, civil engineer, and Duke University professor, Petroski has previously written widely on technology, including Invention by Design: How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing (1996) and Success through Failure: The Paradox of Design (2006). Here he turns from the theoretical side of engineering to the reality. Our infrastructure is crumbling. Our roads (to which an association of engineers assigns a D grade) and bridges (C+) are structurally deficient. But after a frightfully alarming opening section, Petroski provides a history of public projects (bridges, highways, city streets, signage, lighting, etc.) and the graft, political deal-making, and plain ineptitude surrounding them, which, though fascinating and predictably clear and well written, is less the call to arms that one expects. Yet, by examining projects like the Walkway over the Hudson and New York's High Line, and by projecting the applicability of smart cars and smart roads, Petroski offers a more optimistic prognosis than his colleagues' dire evaluations suggest. This is vital reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

popularity

56

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A renowned historian and engineer explores the past, present, and future of America's crumbling infrastructure.
Acclaimed engineer and historian Henry Petroski explores our core infrastructure from both historical and contemporary perspectives, explaining how essential their maintenance is to America's economic health. Petroski reveals the genesis of the many parts of America's highway system—our interstate numbering system, the centerline that divides roads, and such taken-for-granted objects as guardrails, stop signs, and traffic lights—all crucial to our national and local infrastructure.
A compelling work of history, The Road Taken is also an urgent clarion call aimed at American citizens, politicians, and anyone with a vested interest in our economic well-being. Physical infrastructure in the United States is crumbling, and Petroski reveals the complex and challenging interplay between government and industry inherent in major infrastructure...

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   • description: Business & Economics / Infrastructure
2. • code: POL002000
   • description: Political Science / Public Policy / City Planning & Urban Development
3. • code: TEC056000
   • description: Technology & Engineering / History