Creating and Transforming the Twentieth Century, Revised and Expanded: Technical Innovations and Their Lasting Impact

Creating and Transforming the Twentieth Century combines two of Vaclav Smil's seminal works in a revised and expanded edition.Creating the Twentieth Century explores the period between 1867 and 1914, a time of unparalleled innovation that laid the groundwork for modern civilization.It investigates the birth of an expansive society driven by the synergy of fuels, science, and technical innovation.Key inventions from this era include dynamite, the telephone, photographic film, and the first light bulbs in the 1870s, followed by electricity-generating plants, electric motors, steam turbines, and cars in the 1880s.The period of extraordinary discovery continues into the early 20th century with the advent of airplanes, tractors, radio signals, and plastics.Smil systematically examines four fundamental classes of innovations: the formation and standardization of electric systems, the rapid adoption of internal combustion engines, the surge in chemical syntheses and material substitutions, an