Lienhard’s Inventing Modern

Posted by jns on 27 March 2008

When I went recently on my cultural trip to New York with Bill, I traveled with a couple of books: reading for the train trip and for those quiet moments at the hotel. One of the books I took was John H. Lienhard’s Inventing Modern : Growing up with X-Rays, Skyscrapers, and Tailfins (Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2003. 292+ix pages). Fortunately I started reading first thing on the train, and I made sure there were enough quiet moments at the hotel for me to finish the book in a couple of days. What a page turner! My book note is here.

Lienhard observes that in the early part of the 20th Century there was a feeling of Modern. It was something more than just modern, more than just new technology or new science–there was some indefinable spirit of adventure, feeling of invention, and optimistic attitude that seemed to dominate American culture. Naturally, given something indefinable like Modern, Lienhard set out to define it.

Lienhard, Anderson Professor of Technology and Culture, Emeritus, at the University of Houston was there for much of the Modern adventure, and his first-hand experiences adds heft to his discussion of the ideas, technology, and cultural currents of the time that met up in Modern.

I had previously read his book How Invention Begins, which impressed me very much, so I was excited to start on this one and I wasn’t disappointed. I did think that Invention had more profound insights on offer, but that doesn’t mean that Inventing Modern was an intellectual lightweight, although its tone was much more personal and somewhat more casual. They are both eminently readable and thoughtful and stimulating, but likely to stimulate different trains of thought.

I admit that there was an extra little frisson from reading about the nearby Empire State Building, which we could see from the street in front of our hotel, and the Chrysler Building, which we could see from the Brooklyn Bridge and which we visited one day. I’m certain however, that readers can enjoy the book without being in Manhattan to read it.