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

by Evans, Harold; Buckland, Gail; Lefer, David

• ISBN13: 9780316013857
• ISBN10: 0316013854
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-05-09
• Publisher: HACHETTE

Summary

Now available in a text-only paperback edition, THEY MADE AMERICA is a stirring and supremely readable work of historya celebration of the entrepreneurial energy that has fueled our nation since its inception. The real inventor of the steam engine. The creator of the bra. The man who invented modern banking. The creator of the computer operating system. These and scores of others are the characters who populate Harold Evanss brilliant, rollicking book about the men and women who made America great.

Author Biography

Harold Evans is a British-born journalist and writer who was editor of the Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981. A graduate of Durham University, he has written a number of bestselling histories. He followed the late Alistair Cooke in commentaries on America for the BBC. An American citizen since 1993, he has held positions as editor-in-chief of the Atlantic Monthly Press, founding editor of the prize-winning Condé Nast Traveler; editorial director of the Atlantic and US News and the New York Daily News; and president and publisher of Random House.

He holds the British Press Awards' Gold Award for Lifetime Achievement of Journalists. In 2001 British journalists voted him the all-time greatest British newspaper editor, and in 2004 he was knighted. Since 2011, he has been editor-at-large for Reuters.

Table of Contents

America's Genius for Innovation	3	(12)
PART I PATHFINDERS to a NEW CIVILIZATION	15	(148)
The Heroes Who Got America Going	17	(146)
first steamboat	21	(7)
John Fitch
successful steamboat services	28	(14)
Robert Fulton
high-pressure steam engine	42	(8)
Oliver Evans
the cotton gin to the machine age	50	(10)
Eli Whitney
a mass market	60	(14)
Sam Colt
the telegraph	74	(11)
Samuel Morse
American big business	85	(9)
Cyrus McCormick
first successful American multinational	94	(12)
Isaac Merritt Singer
vulcanized rubber	106	(11)
Charles Goodyear
drilling for oil	117	(7)
Edwin Drake
blue jeans	124	(8)
Levi Strauss
the safety elevator	132	(6)
Elisha Otis
credit rating	138	(11)
Lewis Tappan
transcontinental railway	149	(14)
Theodore Dehone Judah
PART II AMERICA TAKES OFF	163	(338)
Adventurous Men Unite a Continent	165	(336)
Section I Inventors	177	(116)
science of innovation	178	(32)
Thomas Alva Edison
plastic	210	(10)
Leo Hendrik Baekeland
wings	220	(43)
Wilbur
Orville Wright
gas mask	263	(5)
Garrett Augustus Morgan
modern radio	268	(25)
Edwin Howard Armstrong
Section II Democratizers	293	(88)
the people's car	294	(19)
Henry Ford
the Kodak	313	(3)
George Eastman
self-made American businesswoman	316	(6)
Sarah Breedlove Walker
the people's banker	322	(24)
Amadeo Peter Giannini
retail franchise network	346	(3)
Martha Matilda Harper
jet age	349	(21)
Juan Terry Trippe
venture capital	370	(11)
General Georges Doriot
Section III Empire Builders	381	(120)
Maidenform bra tycoon	382	(8)
Ida Rosenthal
cheap electricity for all	390	(22)
Samuel Insull
television	412	(13)
Philo T. Farnsworth
entertainment empire	425	(19)
Walt Disney
IBM	444	(12)
Thomas Watson
godfather of IBM	456	(2)
John Patterson
mainframe computers	458	(15)
Thomas Watson Jr.
minicomputers	473	(5)
Ken Olsen
cosmetics company	478	(4)
Estee Lauder
containers	482	(5)
Malcom McLean
Polaroid	487	(5)
Edwin Land
Barbie	492	(9)
Ruth Handler
PART III THE DIGITAL AGE	501	(146)
The Electronic Elves of Silicon Valley	503	(122)
PC software	515	(33)
Gary Kildall
Apple	548	(7)
Steve Jobs
Microsoft	555	(5)
Bill Gates
biotech industry	560	(21)
Herbert Boyer
Robert Swanson
CNN, 24-hour electronic news	581	(14)
Ted Turner
MRI scanner	595	(18)
Raymond Damadian
Google	613	(12)
Larry Page
Sergey Brin
Ten Lessons	625	(4)
Innovators Gallery	629	(18)
Acknowledgments	647	(4)
Selected Bibliography	651	(30)
Index	681