In Power, Speed, and Form, authors David P. Billington and David P. Billington Jr. deliver the first accessible account of the engineering breakthroughs that reshaped American life between 1876 and 1939. The book examines eight pivotal innovations—the telephone, electric power, oil refining, the automobile, the airplane, radio, the long-span steel bridge, and reinforced concrete construction—detailing the technical ingenuity that drove the nation’s transformation into a modern industrial powerhouse.
