The Engineer of the American Century: Vannevar Bush

Vannevar Bush was not a president, a general, or a celebrity, but as Franklin D. Roosevelt's most trusted scientific advisor, he became the quiet architect of modern America. This is the definitive biography of the pragmatic electrical engineer who secretly mobilized the nation's academic and industrial might. As the head of the colossal Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), Bush orchestrated the development of radar, penicillin, the proximity fuse, and ultimately, the Manhattan Project. He proved that organized, large-scale research was the key to global power. After the war, he delivered his second masterwork: Science, The Endless Frontier, the revolutionary blueprint that established the National Science Foundation and created the federal funding system that fuels innovation today. Simultaneously, his prophetic vision of the Memex device—a concept that prefigured hypertext and the personal computer—anticipated the digital world we now inhabit. The Engineer of the American Century is the full, complex story of the political operator and technical genius who defined the relationship between government, science, and technology, shaping the powerful, complex reality of our technological present. Approx.160 pages, 32500 word count