The first half of the book is fascinating reading, as you learn about the inventors of steamboats, oil drilling, and other things we take for granted nowadays, (not steamboats, but you know what I mean), but the second half is largely irrelevant. Cosmetics, shampoos, bras, diet plans, Barbie dolls, children's TV programs, and hip-hop music are not really on par with the achievements of the others.

It's also interesting to note that all the women in the book fall into the "irrelevant" category. I can't help thinking they were included just to avoid accusations about sexism; if so, chalk one more victory for political correctness.

The introduction has this choice gem: "Carly Fiorina, reinventor of Hewlett-Packard, suggests how much was lost by relegating women to innovating for other women." Not much, some would say :) I really have to wonder why some people have such a need for successful women figures that they'll idolize any woman who's achieved any kind of leading position, even if there is no evidence yet of her capabilities, or there's negative evidence.

There's more bad news: the book is not trustworthy. I have no in-depth knowledge of steamboat engines or telegraphs or any of the earlier things, but the things I do know something about were handled quite badly in the book. For example, Gary Kildall is hailed as the leading figure of Computer Science and inventor of hardware-neutral operating systems. It's too bad Unix predated CP/M by many years. Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie are not mentioned even once.

Then there's the biotech chapter. It offers a portrayal of drug companies that doesn't have much to do with reality, as was vividly demonstrated in Angell's book, which talks about some of the same things, with a much more believable viewpoint.

The constant hyping of patents is irritating as well; as it's accompanied by talk about 20-year court battles on nearly everything, you can't help thinking that everyone would've been much better off if there had been no patents to fight over in the first place.