Infrastructure: a Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape
Brian Hayes

This book landed in our library like a bomb. Here are the main chapters: Out of the Earth, Waterworks, Food and Farming, Oil and Gas, Power Plants, The Power Grid, On the Road, The Railroad, Bridges and Tunnels, Aviation, Shipping, and Wastes and Recycling. 520 pages, and hundreds of color photographs by the author over the past 15 years. Its only problem is also its highest achievement: its broad scope and large size. If each chapter were a separate book, then maybe it really could be a “field guide” and not the encyclopedia that it really is. None the less, this book is a landmark, and should be absorbed by everyone, no matter how long it takes (we are still chewing).

Norton, 2005, paperback, 536 pages, many photographs.