Title: An Essay Puffed Up
Product review: The book is made up of about 10 pages of the history of the screw/screwdriver, 15 pages of the author's frustrating research (his frustration, not the reader's), and 120 pages of filler. Much of the filler is interesting but Rybczynski struggled hard, and wandered far, to find enough words to fill this very slim book (probably only 20,000 words). Since less than 10% is about the subject, the substance isn't quite enough for a solid magazine article. I wanted, and expected, more. I'm sure Rybczynski's editor did, too. Given the author's academic profession, I would think the book was the product of the "Publish or perish" syndrome were it not for his considerable resume of published books. I suspect that Professor Rybczynski, were he to read this review, might acknowledge that he was caught.
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