When Technology Fails: Significant Technological Disasters, Accidents, and Failures of the Twentieth Century

by Neil Schlager (Editor)

Book by

Genres: History

659 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Brook · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually a textbook (as I found out), so it costs hundreds of dollars. Find/request a copy at your local library or online. If you live in the DC area, you can get a copy from the Library of Congress.

As a textbook, it is a mini-encyclopedia of disasters of various sorts, detailing causes, conditions at the time, the catastrophe/failure/accident, and aftermath. Some that you've heard of will be in there (bridge failures, building fires), but most you will not.

If you enjoy similar programs on TV (the History Channel seems to be ripe with them), then I wager you'll like this book. It works well as a bathroom reader, because the stories are as short as 4-5 pages, and easily read in a setting. You can also pick and choose, flipping through like a coffee table read. Heck, it's an interesting conversation piece, if you really did get it, and will make a few eyes roll. Fun.

[Amar Pai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has all the big name disasters you'd expect, up to about 1990. Would be interesting to see an updated edition that included more modern incidents such as Deepwater Horizon, Fukushima meltdown.

Don't read this book right before bed, you'll have nightmares!