Books by Vaclav (Distinguished Professor Smil

Post-WW1 inventions transformed the fundamental technical advances that created the modern world, and added new capabilities ranging from both military uses of nuclear energy to the universal diffusion of microprocessors. This book examines almost all of these technical transformations, and appraises their economic, social, and strategic impacts.

The two pre-WWI generations encompass the greatest innovative period in history. Technical inventions of 1867 - 1914 and their rapid improvement and commercialization created new prime movers, materials, infrastructures and information means that provided the lasting foundations of the modern world.