Here is the essential guide to engineering, an authoritative reference book and timeline about how technology has given shape to our civilization.

Engineering predates humanity; Homo habilis was knapping hand axes from fist-sized flints more than a thousand centuries before the dawn of modern humans. Admittedly the development of technology was slow back then-but we’ve made up for lost time since. Striding from the Stone Age to Silicon Valley in 100 steps, we will see how our inventors have seized every scientific breakthrough, new material, and better understanding to improve daily life and expand the scope of civilization. From reshaping rivers and containing the forces of nature to constructing artificial lifeforms and perhaps one day even taming alien planets, engineers think big. These men and women of action make our world.