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Ask HN: Book recommendations about “early days” stories outside of tech
Howdy HN - I'm wondering if folks have any recommendations for books about the early days of companies/industries outside of tech/silicon valley? For example is there something similar to "Hackers" but about the space program, or "Masters of Doom" but about a rock band? Thanks!
- textread 5y agoShoe Dog: about Nike
- dcminter 5y agoTwo rather old autobiographies might be interesting to you: "Slide Rule" by Nevil Shute [0] A large part of this recounts the development of the R100 airship in Britain. "Jet: The Story of a Pioneer" by Frank Whittle [1] A substantial part of this is about the invention of the Jet engine. Obviously they're both focused on the individual but hopefully that's ok. --- [0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/107298.Slide_Rule https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/107298.Slide_Rule [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29565586-jet https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29565586-jet
- neversaydie 5y agoFor the Space Shuttle part of the space program specifically, Rowland White's Into the Black is a great recounting of how that program got started and came to fruition with the first flight: https://www.amazon.com/Into-Black-Extraordinary-Columbia-Astronauts/dp/1501123637 https://www.amazon.com/Into-Black-Extraordinary-Columbia-Ast... Haven't read my copy yet, but for the origins of the (extremely important) container shipping industry, Marc Levinson's The Box comes highly recommended: https://www.amazon.com/Box-Shipping-Container-Smaller-Economy/dp/0691170819 https://www.amazon.com/Box-Shipping-Container-Smaller-Econom... Another one high on my to-read list; the story of the 19th century telegraph system and its impact (figure this is early enough to fall outside the traditional tech category): https://www.amazon.com/Victorian-Internet-Remarkable-Nineteenth-line/dp/162040592X https://www.amazon.com/Victorian-Internet-Remarkable-Ninetee...