An Exploration of Engineering Culture, Design, and Research in Nineteenth-Century France and America . By Eda Kranakis . MIT Press, 1997. Technology has long been viewed as an expression of national character. The relationship between technologists and the rise of the modern nation-state is a rich but difficult topic.
Essential evidence is unobtainable, and much of the secondary literature is nationalistic.
Context is hard to define, and the rhetoric is hard and glossy. With Constructing a Bridge, Kranakis makes an important addition to the literature by presenting accounts of the factors that helped determine the strategies of inventors, designers, and theorists. Finley invented what we today recognize as a suspension bridge, a structure with a level and relatively stable roadway. This pioneer of industrialization was less interested in building a single bridge than devising a structure that could be built in quantity. French apples and American oranges make a juice that may not be to the taste of all historians.