American science and invention, a pictorial history

the long version

This is the story of American change; how the very nature of the Colonies determined a particular kind of science and invention; how this science and invention reacted on American life to change it; how this changed America made new and different demands on science and invention and was again changed, until after one hundred and seventy-five years of this interplay of action and reaction, of constant change, we find ourselves here today. We look at each other, some of us satisfied, some of us not, and wonder how we got that way. This book is my answer to that question -- Mitchell Wilson.