Disasters by Design: How Engineering Failures Shaped the Modern World
Grady Hillhouse
Mar 2027 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Grady Hillhouse
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About this audiobook
How history’s most infamous disasters shaped the field of engineering, from the creator of the popular YouTube channel Practical Engineering
When a giant bridge collapses, a gas explosion blows up a building, or a major dam bursts, it’s hard not to wonder how things could have gone so catastrophically wrong. According to Grady Hillhouse, those failures are the defining force of engineering, where the most important lessons have been learned the hard way.
With the same engaging and accessible approach that makes his YouTube videos so popular, Hillhouse breaks down complex failures into their component parts, showing how poor judgment and willful ignorance can play just as big a role as an errant measurement or faulty component. The fascinating behind-the-scenes stories of history’s greatest structural breakdowns, from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to the Johnstown Flood and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse, reveal how engineers learned from their mistakes and developed the core principles that keep buildings standing today.
Not all of us will design a building or lay out an electrical grid, but thinking like an engineer can help us spot weak links, respect margins, and value hard truths over wishful thinking. Disasters by Design highlights human resilience and our extraordinary capacity for progress.
* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF featuring the illustrations, diagrams, charts, maps, and other visual elements from the print edition.
When a giant bridge collapses, a gas explosion blows up a building, or a major dam bursts, it’s hard not to wonder how things could have gone so catastrophically wrong. According to Grady Hillhouse, those failures are the defining force of engineering, where the most important lessons have been learned the hard way.
With the same engaging and accessible approach that makes his YouTube videos so popular, Hillhouse breaks down complex failures into their component parts, showing how poor judgment and willful ignorance can play just as big a role as an errant measurement or faulty component. The fascinating behind-the-scenes stories of history’s greatest structural breakdowns, from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to the Johnstown Flood and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse, reveal how engineers learned from their mistakes and developed the core principles that keep buildings standing today.
Not all of us will design a building or lay out an electrical grid, but thinking like an engineer can help us spot weak links, respect margins, and value hard truths over wishful thinking. Disasters by Design highlights human resilience and our extraordinary capacity for progress.
* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF featuring the illustrations, diagrams, charts, maps, and other visual elements from the print edition.
How history’s most infamous disasters shaped the field of engineering, from the creator of the popular YouTube channel Practical Engineering
When a giant bridge collapses, a gas explosion blows up a building, or a major dam bursts, it’s hard not to wonder how things could have gone so catastroph...
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About the author
Grady Hillhouse is a licensed civil engineer who spent nearly ten years in private practice working on a wide variety of infrastructure projects with a focus on dams, hydraulic structures, and riverbank restorations. He is widely known for his educational video channel Practical Engineering and is the author of Engineering in Plain Sight. He holds degrees from Texas State University and Texas A&M University and lives with his family in Texas.
Grady Hillhouse is a licensed civil engineer who spent nearly ten years in private practice working on a wide variety of infrastructure projects with a focus on dams, hydraulic structures, and riverbank restorations. He is widely known for his educational video channel Practical Engineering and i...
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