Cover: To Forgive Design: Understanding Failure, from Harvard University Press

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To Forgive Design

Understanding Failure

Henry Petroski

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Product Details

PAPERBACK

$22.00 • £17.95 • €20.00

ISBN 9780674416826

Publication Date: 11/24/2014

432 pages

5-1/2 x 8-1/4 inches

12 halftones

World

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Henry Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and Professor of History at Duke University.

Related Links

Read a New York Times essay by Henry Petroski—written on the first anniversary of Hurricane Sandy—on the conflict between optimal solutions (what is technically possible?) and cost–benefit analysis (what is realistic?)
Read an interview with Petroski in American History
Listen to interviews with Petroski on WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show, WILL’s Focus, BBC World Service’s The Forum, CBC’s Spark, and WUNC’s The State of Things
Read Petroski’s essay in Design News on engineering as a process of anticipating failure
Read Petroski’s warning in the New York Daily News about the risks of aging bridges
Read a Washington Post piece by Petroski about the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic
Read an interview with Petroski in Scientific American about the Titanic, the Costa Concordia, and other situations in which human error overcame engineering
Read an interview with Petroski at Salon in which he discusses disastrous failures of design, and the impact of the economic recession on the safety of America’s infrastructure
Read Petroski’s essay in American Scientist on the political and engineering backstory behind today’s automotive safety features
Read Petroski’s thoughts in ASEE Prism about geothermal sources of electricity

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Awards & Accolades

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2012

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