Since road trips couldn't exist without
the inventions that make them possible -- internal combustion engines,
to name an important one -- it's hard to think of a better audiobook to
slip into your CD player on such a journey than Harold Evans' They
Made America. As you zoom past power lines, railroad tracks, and generating
plants, the author himself will regale you with the fascinating stories
behind the innovators who made them integral parts of daily life. It's
a refreshing way to travel through American history, and Evans' selection
of subjects includes not only names you'll recognize, but also a number
you might not.
The audio version of They Made America is an
abridgement on five CDs. While this is not enough air time to include
all of the innovators covered in Evans' formidable book, it is a well-rounded
selection beginning with steamboat magnate Robert Fulton and ending with
Pierre Omidyar, who started Ebay in a San Jose apartment. In between,
you'll hear how Theodore Judah brought the first transcontinental railroad
into being, how Samuel Colt changed the course of history with his revolver,
and how Ruth Handler came up with the idea for Barbie dolls. Madame C.
J. Walker is here, too, and the story of her rise from destitution to
wildly successful manufacturer of hair care products.
Of course, no collection of this sort would be complete
without Thomas Edison, and Evans' profile is not only a thorough outline
of Edison's accomplishments, but also a picture of the man himself. The
same is true of Evans' portrait of sewing machine king Eli Singer, whose
unconventional personal life would have provided more than enough fodder
for a fat novel.
Evans draws a distinction between innovation and
invention. Invention, he claims, is only one step in a process that
must also include vision and persistence. It wasn't enough that Edison
invented an incandescent bulb. It was his determination to light up Manhattan
that changed the world. The profiles in They Made America all reveal
not only minds capable of brilliant ideas and clever constructs, but also
personalities with enough stubbornness and vision to make a difference.
Megan
Edwards
11/21/04
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