Join alumni, and the Duke community, for engaging books and discussions.
Hear from Blue Devil authors as they share writing influences, introduce their work, and provide insights into your next new read. 
Participate in thought-provoking reads designed to introduce incoming freshmen to Duke’s academic climate and encourage intellectual dialogue. This year’s selection is 
Force: What It Means to Push and Pull, Slip and Grip, Start and Stop
Force explores how humans interact with the material world in the course of their everyday activities. This book for the general reader also considers the significance of force in shaping societies and cultures.
Celebrated author Henry Petroski delves into the ongoing physical interaction between people and things that enables them to stay put or causes them to move. He explores the range of daily human experience whereby we feel the sensations of push and pull, resistance and assistance. The book is also about metaphorical force, which manifests itself as pressure and relief, achievement and defeat.
Petroski draws from a variety of disciplines to make the case that force—represented especially by our sense of touch—is a unifying principle that pervades our lives. In the wake of a prolonged global pandemic that increasingly cautioned us about contact with the physical world, Petroski offers a new perspective on the importance of the sensation and power of touch.
Biography
Henry Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering Emeritus at Duke. He has written broadly on the topics of design, success and failure, and the history of engineering and technology. His books include To Engineer is Human and The Pencil. His most recent book is Force: What It Means to Push and Pull, Slip and Grip, Start and Stop.
Editor's Note: Professor Petroski passed away shortly after contributing to this list. We are grateful to celebrate his legacy with you all. Learn more about his wonderful life and contributions to engineering and history here.