ENGINEERING: ITS ROLE AND FUNCTION IN HUMAN SOCIETY.

. Edited byWilliam H. Davenport '29 and Daniel Rosenthal. New York: Pergamon Press,1968. 284 pp. $7.50.

This timely book reflects the growing na- tional awareness of the necessity to span the gulf between the engineering community and the humanists, and to reconcile the divergent historical views that each has had of the other. And it is a rewarding book for the insights offered into the history of technology, philosophy of science, the sociology of engineering, and engineering for the layman.

It is divided into four parts, each introduced by one of the two editors: "The View-point of the Humanist," "Attitudes of the Engineer," "Man and the Machine" and "Technology and the Future." The sections comprise essays by forty outstanding thinkers, all identified in a 'Who's Who' at the end of the volume. They range from the first century B.C. Roman architect and engineer, Vitruvius, and the 16th century's Domenico Fontana to Robert Heilbroner, John von Neumann, and Norbert Wiener. The 19th century is represented by Samuel Butler, Nicholas Leonard Sadi Carnot, and John Henry Newman with the remainder drawn - logically - from today. The juxtaposition of these essays emphasizes "the contrasts and comparisons,... similarities within apparent contradictions, and the inescapable time divisions of past, present, and future."

The thoughtful reader may derive the satisfaction of knowing that the debate about "two cultures" wanes; that perhaps the wheel is coming full circle and we, with Francis Bacon, can take all knowledge for our province.