Rescuing Prometheus: Four Monumental Projects That Changed the Modern World

By Thomas P. Hughes

Book Overview

"A rare insight into industrial planning on a huge scale...Excellent." -- The Economist Rescuing Prometheus is an eye-opening and marvelously informative look at some of the technological projects that helped shape the modern world. Thomas P. Hughes focuses on four postwar projects whose vastness and complexity inspired new technology, new organizations, and new management styles. The first use of computers to run systems was developed for the SAGE air defense project. The Atlas missile project was so complicated it required the development of systems engineering in order to complete it. The Boston Central Artery/Tunnel Project tested systems engineering in the complex crucible of a large scale civilian roadway. And finally, the origins of the Internet fostered the collegial management style that later would take over Silicon Valley and define the modern computer industry. With keen insight, Hughes tells these fascinating stories while providing a riveting history of modern technology and the management systems that made it possible.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679739386
• ISBN13: 9780679739388
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 8.0" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

Precursor to software programming

Rescuing Prometheus provides eyewitness detail into the people, thought processes, decision highlights of 4 large, monumental projects in system engineering. Along the way, as a side-effect, these events created the world of software programming. When reading this book in combination with other books such as "Digital Apollo" and the "History of the MIT Flight Computer", one gains a deep understanding of what is and why it is. If you need this grounding, this is an excellent book. I think it's rating depends on what you want from the book. For example, I have read hundreds of books on the begining of the Arpanet. This book goes 10 years earlier and tells the story that is never told. Is that helpful? Of course it is.