Overview

"John Roebling was one of the nineteenth century's most brilliant engineers, ingenious inventors, successful manufacturers, and fascinating personalities. Raised in a German backwater amid the war-torn chaos of the Napoleonic Wars, he immigrated to the US in 1831, where he became wealthy and acclaimed, eventually receiving a carte-blanche contract to build one of the nineteenth century's most stupendous and daring works of engineering: a gigantic suspension bridge to span the East River between New York and Brooklyn. In between, he thought, wrote, and worked tirelessly. He dug canals and surveyed railroads; he planned communities and founded new industries. Horace Greeley called him ""a model immigrant""; generations later, F. Scott Fitzgerald worked on a script for the movie version of his life. Like his finest creations, Roebling was held together by the delicate balance of countervailing forces. On the surface, his life was exemplary and his accomplishments legion. As an immigrant and employer, he was respected throughout the world. As an engineer, his works profoundly altered the physical landscape of America. He was a voracious reader, a fervent abolitionist, and an engaged social commentator. His understanding of the natural world, however, bordered on the occult and his opinions about medicine are best described as medieval. For a man of science and great self-certainty, he was also remarkably quick to seize on a whole host of fads and foolish trends. Yet Roebling held these strands together. Throughout his life, he believed in the moral application of science and technology, that bridges--along with other great works of connection, the Atlantic Cable, the Transcontinental Railroad--could help bring people together, erase divisions, and heal wounds. Like Walt Whitman, Roebling was deeply committed to the creation of a more perfect union, forged from the raw materials of the continent. John Roebling was a complex, deeply divided yet undoubtedly influential figure, and this biography illuminates not only his works but also the world of nineteenth-century America. Roebling's engineering feats are well known, but the man himself is not; for alongside the drama of large scale construction lies an equally rich drama of intellectual and social development and crisis, one that mirrored and reflected the great forces, trials, and failures of nineteenth century America."

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9780190092870

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Reviews

Readers have had to wait a century and a half for a definitive biography of America s great engineer, John Roebling; now we have a page-turner in Richard Haw s Engineering America. And, as if a bonus for our patience, we have also in this very readable book an insightful biography of Roebling-era wire suspension bridges, culminating in the masterpieces of Roebling himself. This is a work it was worth waiting for. --Henry Petroski, author of Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America Like one of John Roebling s bridges, Richard Haw s biography rests on deep foundations of research in Germany and the United States, a knowledge of the complexity of engineering, and an awareness of the social uses and philosophical implications of technology. This definitive work is as grand as its subject is great. --David E. Nye, author of American Technological Sublime Richard Haw's compelling biography is a portrait of a nineteenth-century titan. German-born John Roebling was a true American visionary, the man who made revolutionary suspension bridges, but more than that too: a scholar, a philosopher, a man driven to extremes by passion and the ceaseless thirst for knowledge. This, at last, is the book the great John Roebling deserves, restoring him to his proper place among the significant men and women who built America and the world. --Erica Wagner, author of Chief Engineer: Washington Roebling, The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge The suspension bridges of John A. Roebling are among the most beautiful of all the engineering works produced in nineteenth-century America; somehow the simple, slender cables hold up a roadway as each bridge spans a broad expanse of water. But to achieve both beauty and simplicity in his bridges, Roebling had to orchestrate a complex mix of natural forces, new materials, politics, and money. In this thoughtful biography, Richard Haw not only traces the complexity of Roebling s bridges but also reveals how each design reflected the complexity of his personality and passions. --W. Bernard Carlson, author of Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age This lengthy biography of a civil engineer who significantly impacted history should engage anyone interested in inventions and engineering. --Library Journal

"""Readers have had to wait a century and a half for a definitive biography of America s great engineer, John Roebling; now we have a page-turner in Richard Haw s Engineering America. And, as if a bonus for our patience, we have also in this very readable book an insightful biography of Roebling-era wire suspension bridges, culminating in the masterpieces of Roebling himself. This is a work it was worth waiting for.""--Henry Petroski, author of Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America ""Like one of John Roebling s bridges, Richard Haw s biography rests on deep foundations of research in Germany and the United States, a knowledge of the complexity of engineering, and an awareness of the social uses and philosophical implications of technology. This definitive work is as grand as its subject is great.""--David E. Nye, author of American Technological Sublime ""Richard Haw's compelling biography is a portrait of a nineteenth-century titan. German-born John Roebling was a true American visionary, the man who made revolutionary suspension bridges, but more than that too: a scholar, a philosopher, a man driven to extremes by passion and the ceaseless thirst for knowledge. This, at last, is the book the great John Roebling deserves, restoring him to his proper place among the significant men and women who built America and the world.""--Erica Wagner, author of Chief Engineer: Washington Roebling, The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge ""The suspension bridges of John A. Roebling are among the most beautiful of all the engineering works produced in nineteenth-century America; somehow the simple, slender cables hold up a roadway as each bridge spans a broad expanse of water. But to achieve both beauty and simplicity in his bridges, Roebling had to orchestrate a complex mix of natural forces, new materials, politics, and money. In this thoughtful biography, Richard Haw not only traces the complexity of Roebling s bridges but also reveals how each design reflected the complexity of his personality and passions.""--W. Bernard Carlson, author of Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age ""This lengthy biography of a civil engineer who significantly impacted history should engage anyone interested in inventions and engineering.""--Library Journal"

Author Information

Richard Haw is Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. He is the author of The Brooklyn Bridge: A Cultural History and Art of the Brooklyn Bridge: A Visual History.

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