The Toothpick: Technology and Culture

The Toothpick: Technology and Culture - Paperback

$25.00
$25.00
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The Toothpick: Technology and Culture
  • The Toothpick: Technology and Culture
The Toothpick: Technology and Culture - Paperback

The Toothpick: Technology and Culture - Paperback

by Henry Petroski
$25.00
$25.00

Book Overview

A celebration culture and technology, as seen through the history of the humble yet ubiquitous toothpick, from the best-selling author of The Pencil.

From ancient Rome, where emperor Nero made his entrance into a banquet hall with a silver toothpick in his mouth, to nineteenth-century Boston, where Charles Forster, the father of the American wooden toothpick industry, ensured toothpicks appeared in every restaurant, the toothpick has been an omnipresent, yet often overlooked part of our daily lives. Here, with an engineer's eye for detail and a poet's flair for language, Henry Petroski takes us on an incredible tour of this most interesting invention. Along the way, he peers inside today's surprisingly secretive toothpick-manufacturing industry, and explores a treasure trove of the toothpick's unintended uses and perils, from sandwiches to martinis and beyond.
ISBN9780307279439
Author Henry Petroski
PublisherKnopf Doubleday Publishing Group
GenreHistory and Technology
FormatPaperback
PublishedNovember 2008
LanguageENG- English
Pages464
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

History Nonfiction Technology & Engineering

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More by Henry Petroski

The Toothpick: Technology and Culture

The Toothpick: Technology and Culture - Paperback

The Toothpick: Technology and Culture - Paperback

By Henry Petroski

About Henry Petroski

Henry Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of history at Duke University. The author of a dozen previous books, he lives in Durham, North Carolina.

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