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The scope and speed of technological change over the past 100 years has been astonishing. In large part, we must credit the world's engineers with these advances. To recognize the most influential of their accomplishments, the National Academy of Engineering and a consortium of professional societies representing nearly every engineering discipline have compiled the 20 greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century. While one might expect that the list is a catalogue of momentous and highly visible engineering feats like the moon landing, the lineup is largely composed of more commonplace advances that ultimately had a profound and widespread effect. Indeed, most of the items on the list are so much a part of our lives that we hardly stop to think about them. We take air conditioning and refrigeration for granted, but they have significantly improved comfort and health and given us the ability to transport and extend the shelf life of food. Radio and television are more than mere entertainment devices, they have changed the way we view the world. The telephone has made the planet a smaller but more connected place for all of us. And enabling many of these technologies is the computer from room-sized super computers to palm-sized devices. At the very top of the list is electrification. More than half of the Top 20 would not have been possible without it. Electrification changed America's economic development and gave the rural population the same opportunities and amenities as people in the cities. If anything shines as an example of how engineering has changed the world, it is clearly electric power. Each achievement is covered individually in separate chapters, structured so that there is a full history of the engineering achievement as well as a description of the impact it had on our lives. Accompanying each chapter is a Perspective written by a notable engineer connected with the achievement. Among others, Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft, writes for the chapter on computers; Kent Kresa, CEO and Chairman of Northrop Grumman, writes for the chapter on airplanes; and Dr. E. Linn Draper, Jr., Chairman, President, and CEO of American Electric Power, writes on electrification. Also included is a timeline that traces the evolution of the achievement as well as illustrations that depict how something actually works. Replete with photographs and drawings, the drama of invention and discovery are brought vividly to life. More than a simple tally of engineering achievements, A Century of Innovation shows that the innovations made possible by the talented engineers of the world have truly transformed the way people live.