The Innovators, Trade: The Engineering Pioneers Who Transformed America

This book was very insightful. Although being titled "The Innovators" it is more so above the innovations they brought to the table and how they were able to transition society. This book is written in a more historical sense and more so discusses the predecessors to many of the technologies that we have today. It is ever so interesting to see how we got to where we are today. Although this book does not directly reference digital marketing, it does reference many of the mediums we use to market digitally such as cell phones and computers. Without these mediums and machines, we would not be able to market digitally and we would be stuck with print media. We would also not be able to reach nearly the amount of people, sell online or target our desired individuals. There is a sense of efficiency that comes with the machines we use in order to market digitally. Without it, we would use a lot more time and energy on being inefficient. Our businesses would surely follow in a similar fashion and become much less profitable, mainly due to the high costs involved with print media. It will be interesting to see where digital marketing evolves in the near future. Yet, I believe it will continue to grow in the coming years and will adapt to the rise of smart technology and artificial intelligence. Which may be able to target and market digitally on your behalf which again would lower costs and increase efficiency even more.

Arrived in good condition very satisfied with purchase.

This book is part of a planned series on the history of engineering in the United States. As such it's pretty remarkable for just existing. Most people seem to think that engineering is just application of formulas, and that anybody with a calculator would come out with the same answer to any particular engineering problem. Billington attempts to show that this is not so, and that certain key engineers have essentially created the modern world of today.However, this book (planned to be the first of four) is not as readable as book two (Power Speed And Form). I think the problem can be demonstrated in the section about steel. In order to describe steel, he first goes back to the process of creating pig iron, then describes wrought iron, and finally the Bessemer process for steel. Then he highlights Andrew Carnegie for taking the Bessemer process and turning steel into a commodity (that he mostly controlled).This is just a much more disjointed story than, for instance, the story of the invention of the telephone or the airplane in the second book. Even though this book is called "The Innovators", very few of the people he highlights made the kind of individual breakthroughs that the Wright Brothers made.Perhaps this book should have been called "The Adaptors", as it really was mostly about engineers in the US adapting technologies pioneered in England and taking them well beyond what the English had done.This reads like a college textbook -- informative, detailed, and something most people will not read unless it is on a required reading list. In contrast, the second book read more like something from The History Channel, with more of a purpose of making it enjoyable to read as well as being just as informational.