This major work is about much more than the origins of statics and its use in building and bridge engineering since the late sixteenth century. It is also about the very ideas of 'statics' and 'strength of materials' and how they came to be an integral part of the engineer's life; how they were developed into an academic discipline; how they became the subject of growing numbers of technical books and periodicals; and, ultimately, how the epistemology of the subject developed.
Drawing on a long series of specialized articles and more than two decades of study, the author begins each chapter with a personal reflection on his involvement with the subject under discussion. He demonstrates how engineering thought, far from being abstractly objective, is imbued with the character of its thinkers, their teachers, and their pupils. Kurrer also includes short biographies of over one hundred engineers who made major contributions to advances in structural theory and practice, most of which are illustrated by portraits, and the whole is backed by an extensive bibliography.
