The Ancient Engineers

The Ancient Engineers is a 1963 science book by L. Sprague de Camp, one of his most popular works. It was first published by Doubleday and has been reprinted numerous times by other publishers. Translations into German and Polish have also been published. Portions of the work had previously appeared as articles in the magazines Fate, Isis and Science Digest.[1][2]

The Ancient Engineers
First edition
AuthorL. Sprague de Camp
Cover artistRobert Flynn
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectEngineering
PublisherDoubleday
Publication date
1963
Media typePrint (Hardback)
Pages408 pp

Contents

The work is an examination of engineering through the ages from 3000 BC to 1519 AD, from the monumental works of the Egyptians through the speculative inventions of Leonardo da Vinci. The technological legacies of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, the medieval Arabs and Europeans, and Renaissance Europe, are all covered in separate sections, focusing particularly on architectural, military and civil engineering.

Review

The following review is often quoted in reference to this book:

Mr. de Camp has the trick of being able to show technology engaging in feats as full of derring-do as those of Hannibal's army. History as it should be told.

—Isaac Asimov, The New York Times Book Review, 15 May 1963[3]
gollark: I find running really boring. Also most exercise-y stuff.
gollark: "Everyone should climb" sounds like one of those "I like this so surely everyone does" statements.
gollark: I read a very convincing and well-evidenced reddit post a while ago saying that weightlifting was very good for your health and that sort of thing probably last year, and have done absolutely nothing about it.
gollark: I think I've been handling the whole quarantine situation decently, as it's *basically* a really long school holiday for me anyway. Apart from getting basically no exercise, but I kind of do that anyway.
gollark: Makes sense. If demand for coronavirus drops, production should decrease too.

See also

Notes
  1. Laughlin, Charlotte; Daniel J. H. Levack (1983). De Camp: An L. Sprague de Camp Bibliography. San Francisco: Underwood/Miller. pp. 23–24.
  2. The Ancient Engineers title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
  3. Prescott, Orville; Asimov, Isaac (15 May 1963). "Books of The Times; Informally Informative Primitive Artificers". Books of The Times (column). The New York Times. p. 37. Retrieved 21 May 2019.


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