# American engineer Henry Petroski has written a lot of books

**URL:** <https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/american-engineer-henry-petroski-has-written-a-lot-of-books/57953>\
**Category:** Maritime Topics\
**Created:** [January 7, 2021, 12:55pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/american-engineer-henry-petroski-has-written-a-lot-of-books/57953 "2021-01-07T12:55:05Z")\
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**Author:** ![Kennebec\_Captain](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.gcaptain.com/kennebec_captain/32/13_2.png) [@Kennebec\_Captain](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Kennebec_Captain)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 12:55pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/american-engineer-henry-petroski-has-written-a-lot-of-books/57953/1 "2021-01-07T12:55:05Z")

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> **[Henry Petroski](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Petroski)**
>
> Henry Petroski (February 6, 1942 – June 14, 2023) was an American engineer specializing in failure analysis. A professor both of civil engineering and history at Duke University, he was also a prolific author. Petroski has written over a dozen books – beginning with To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design (1985) and including a number of titles detailing the industrial design history of common, everyday objects, such as pencils, paper clips, toothpicks, and silverware. Hi...

> - _To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design_ (1985), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-679-73416-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-679-73416-1)
> - _Beyond Engineering: Essays and Other Attempts to Figure without Equations_ (1986), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-312-07785-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-312-07785-3)
> - _The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance_ (1990), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-679-73415-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-679-73415-4)
> - _The Evolution of Useful Things_ (1992), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-679-74039-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-679-74039-1)
> - _Design Paradigms: Case Histories of Error and Judgment in Engineering_ (1994), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-521-46649-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-521-46649-3)
> - _Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and The Spanning of America_ (1995), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-679-76021-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-679-76021-4)
> - _Invention by Design: How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing_ (1996), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-674-46368-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-674-46368-4)
> - _Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering_ (1997), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-375-70024-8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-375-70024-8)
> - _The Book on the Bookshelf_ (1999), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-375-70639-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-375-70639-4)
> - _Paperboy: Confessions of a Future engineer_ (2002), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-375-71898-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-375-71898-4)
> - _Small Things Considered: Why There Is No Perfect Design_ (2003), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-4000-3293-8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-4000-3293-8)
> - _Pushing the Limits: New Adventures in Engineering_ (2004), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-4000-3294-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-4000-3294-5)
> - _Success Through Failure: The Paradox of Design._ (2006), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-691-13642-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-691-13642-4)
> - _The Toothpick: Technology and Culture._ (2007), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-307-27943-9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-307-27943-9)
> - _The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems._ (2010), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-307-27245-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-307-27245-4)
> - _The Engineer’s Alphabet: Gleanings from the Softer Side of a Profession._ (2011), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-107-01506-7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-107-01506-7)
> - _To Forgive Design: Understanding Failure._ (2012), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-674-06584-0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-674-06584-0)
> - _The House with Sixteen Handmade Doors: A Tale of Architectural Choice and Craftsmanship._ (2014), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-393-24204-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-393-24204-1)
> - _The Road Taken: The History and Future of America’s Infrastructure._ (2016), [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-63286-360-7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-63286-360-7)