Topics include airplane accidents, bridge collapses, and fatigue cracks. Case studies include the Hyatt Regency Hotel (Kansas City) skywalk, the Crystal Palace, the de Havilland Comet, and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Originally published: New York : St. Martin's Press, 1985. Includes bibliographical references (p. [233]-244) and index.

Being human -- Falling down is part of growing up -- Lessons from play; lessons from life [;] appendix : "The Deacon's masterpiece", by Oliver Wendell Holmes -- Engineering as hypothesis -- Success is foreseeing failure -- Design is getting from here to there -- Design as revision -- Accidents waiting to happen -- Safety in numbers -- When cracks become breakthroughs -- Of bus frames and knife blades -- Interlude: the success story of the Crystal Palace -- The ups and downs of bridges -- Forensic engineering and engineering fiction -- From slide rule to computer: forgetting how it used to be done -- Connoisseurs of chaos -- The limits of design -- Afterword.