The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention -

William Rosen

University Of Chicago Press

2012

376 páginas

12h 32m

ISBN-13: 9780226726342

Hardly a week passes without some high-profile court case that features intellectual property at its center. But how did the belief that one could own an idea come about? And how did that belief change the way humankind lives and works?

William Rosen, author of Justinian’s Flea, seeks to answer these questions and more with The Most Powerful Idea in the World. A lively and passionate study of the engineering and scientific breakthroughs that led to the steam engine, this book argues that the very notion of intellectual property drove not only the invention of the steam engine but also the entire Industrial Revolution: history’s first sustained era of economic improvement. To do so, Rosen conjures up an eccentric cast of characters, including the legal philosophers who enabled most the inventive society in millennia, and the scientists and inventors—Thomas Newcomen, Robert Boyle, and James Watt—who helped to create and perfect the steam engine over the centuries. With wit and wide-ranging curiosity, Rosen explores the power of creativity, capital, and collaboration in the brilliant engineering of the steam engine and how this power source, which fueled factories, ships, and railroads, changed human history.   

Deeply informative and never dull, Rosen’s account of one of the most important inventions made by humans is a rollicking ride through history, with careful scholarship and fast-paced prose in equal measure.

Resenhas (1)

4 (Muito bom)

Lido e Relido

Ótimo livro, parte da primeira locomotiva a vapor para traçar as histórias das inovações que levaram a sua criação e avaliar, com pesquisas atuais, o que é a inovação e porque ela culminou na Revolução Industrial, e porque ela ocorreu naquele momento e naquele lugar, a Inglaterra dos séculos XVIII e XIX.

Melhor ainda, no meio do caminho você descobre porque muitos problemas são resolvidos enquanto tomamos banho, que o primeiro aparato a vapor surgiu na Alexandria antiga e que Lavoisier foi vítima da revolução francesa.

Qual a ideia mais poderosa? Que ideias são valiosas e pertencem a seus pensadores.