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The Perfectionists
A review of

The Perfectionists

How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World

Simon WinchesterHarper • 2018

Granular Perfection

by David Meyer

Bestseller Simon Winchester, OBE, presents a fascinating history of humans attempting to create precision, all in the face of the natural world’s indifference.

In this New York Times bestseller, Simon Winchester, OBE – an Oxford-educated raconteur with a wry sense of humor and of drama – proves a wise historian who guides you from Ancient Greece’s Antikythera mechanism to the Seiko quartz watch. Winchester shows that he’s at heart a moralist as he pursues how the soul of machines evolved. In this inquiry into perfection, Winchester cautions that humans must balance the precision of the industrial world with the more powerful imprecision of the natural world. 

The New York Review of Books described Winchester as “…a longtime journalist turned author, a meticulous researcher and catholic thinker.” Booklist called this book, “Another gem from one of the world’s justly celebrated historians specializing in unusual and always fascinating subjects and people.” And Publishers Weekly wrote, “Winchester’s latest is a rollicking work of pop science that entertains and informs.”


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