American Inventors
1. 
They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators
by:
Harold Evans
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 268 ratings 
3. 
4. 
Ben & Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin by His Good Mouse Amos
by:
Robert Lawson
3.82 avg rating — 4,050 ratings 4. 
In the Land of Invented Languages: Adventures in Linguistic Creativity, Madness, and Genius
by:
Arika Okrent
4.10 avg rating — 2,943 ratings 
7. 
The Marvelous Thing That Came from a Spring: The Accidental Invention of the Toy That Swept the Nation
by:
Gilbert Ford
4.05 avg rating — 502 ratings 8. 
Inventing the American Guitar: The Pre-Civil War Innovations of C.F. Martin and His Contemporaries
by:
James Westbrook
4.36 avg rating — 22 ratings 8. 
10. 
Patently Female: From AZT to TV Dinners, Stories of Women Inventors and Their Breakthrough Ideas
by:
Ethlie Ann Vare
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 24 ratings 
10. ![Thomas Alva Edison; sixty years of an inventor's life by Francis Arthur Jones; with numerous illustrations from photographs. 1908 [Leather Bound]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1699551924i/140640975._SX100_.jpg)
14. 
Enter Helen: The Invention of Helen Gurley Brown and the Rise of the Modern Single Woman
by:
Brooke Hauser
3.65 avg rating — 254 ratings 16. 
The Telescope in the Ice: Inventing a New Astronomy at the South Pole
by:
Mark Bowen
4.12 avg rating — 110 ratings 
17. 
Incendiary: The Psychiatrist, the Mad Bomber, and the Invention of Criminal Profiling
by:
Michael Cannell
3.83 avg rating — 1,152 ratings 
19. 
Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History
by:
Sam Maggs
3.98 avg rating — 2,136 ratings 21. 
iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It
by:
Steve Wozniak
3.85 avg rating — 17,359 ratings 21. 
23. 
On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker
by:
A'Lelia Bundles
3.98 avg rating — 4,497 ratings 
25. 
Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her
by:
Robin Gerber
3.70 avg rating — 1,924 ratings 25. 
Inventions: The Legendary Works (A) of America’s (B) Most Honored (C) Cartoonist 3.94 avg rating — 98 ratings
27. 
Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World
by:
Jill Jonnes
4.07 avg rating — 2,652 ratings 27. 
Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War 3.93 avg rating — 1,168 ratings
29. 
To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight
by:
James Tobin
4.06 avg rating — 395 ratings 29. 
Segregating Sound: Inventing Folk and Pop Music in the Age of Jim Crow 4.22 avg rating — 95 ratings
31. 
The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret
by:
Seth Shulman
3.63 avg rating — 290 ratings 
33. 
Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire
by:
James Wallace
4.12 avg rating — 1,970 ratings 
35. 
Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues
by:
Elijah Wald
4.02 avg rating — 1,471 ratings 
37. 
39. 
Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse
by:
David E. Brown
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 11 ratings 39. 
Dam Busters: The True Story of the Inventors and Airmen Who Led the Devastating Raid to Smash the German Dams in 1943
by:
James Holland
4.33 avg rating — 1,438 ratings 41. 
The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane
by:
Russell Freedman
3.89 avg rating — 1,179 ratings 41. 
The Creative Process: Reflections on Invention in the Arts and Sciences 3.72 avg rating — 133 ratings
43. 
Forget About Today: Bob Dylan's Genius for (Re)invention, Shunning the Naysayers, and Creating a Personal Revolution
by:
Jon Friedman
2.98 avg rating — 49 ratings 45. 
The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible
by:
Simon Winchester
3.86 avg rating — 4,252 ratings 
46. 
Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World
by:
Richard Rhodes
3.17 avg rating — 3,305 ratings 
48. 
Atlanta Rising: The Invention of an International City 1946-1996
by:
Frederick Allen
4.10 avg rating — 86 ratings 
51. 
Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming
by:
Fred Krupp
3.77 avg rating — 311 ratings 52. 
Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science (Princeton Science Library, 91)
by:
Michael Nielsen
3.94 avg rating — 642 ratings 53. 
The Inventor and the Tycoon: A Gilded Age Murder and the Birth of Moving Pictures
by:
Edward Ball
3.25 avg rating — 1,500 ratings 54. 
Mister Jelly Roll: The Fortunes of Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans Creole and "Inventor of Jazz"
by:
Alan Lomax
4.13 avg rating — 141 ratings 55. 
Roy Orbison: Invention Of An Alternative Rock Masculinity
by:
Peter Lehman
4.05 avg rating — 20 ratings 56. 
An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood
by:
Neal Gabler
4.01 avg rating — 765 ratings 57. 
The Santa Claus Man: The Rise and Fall of a Jazz Age Con Man and the Invention of Christmas in New York
by:
Alex Palmer
3.78 avg rating — 567 ratings 58. 
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World
by:
Andrea Wulf
4.32 avg rating — 28,488 ratings 59. 
Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Launched the Military-Industrial Complex
by:
Michael Hiltzik
4.02 avg rating — 372 ratings 60. 
The Perfection of the Paper Clip: Curious Tales of Invention, Accidental Genius, and Stationery Obsession
by:
James Ward
3.84 avg rating — 613 ratings 61. 
One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America
by:
Kevin M. Kruse
3.96 avg rating — 2,552 ratings 62. 
The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature
by:
Ben Tarnoff
3.82 avg rating — 754 ratings 63. 
The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution
by:
Jonathan Eig
3.98 avg rating — 3,555 ratings 64. 
How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery
by:
Kevin Ashton
4.01 avg rating — 2,190 ratings 65. 
The Art of Rube Goldberg: (A) Inventive (B) Cartoon (C) Genius
by:
Jennifer George
4.10 avg rating — 93 ratings 66. 
The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government 4.20 avg rating — 626 ratings
67. 
68. 
Cypress Gardens, America's Tropical Wonderland: How Dick Pope Invented Florida
by:
Lu Vickers
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7 ratings 69. 
The Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Invention of 20th-Century Journalism 3.82 avg rating — 17 ratings
70. 
Wisconsin on the Air: 100 Years of Public Broadcasting in the State That Invented It
by:
Jack Mitchell
4.22 avg rating — 27 ratings 71. 
Drive!: Henry Ford, George Selden, and the Race to Invent the Auto Age 3.88 avg rating — 243 ratings
72. 
Poison Tea: How Big Oil and Big Tobacco Invented the Tea Party and Captured the GOP
by:
Jeff Nesbit
3.71 avg rating — 51 ratings 73. 
Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll
by:
Peter Guralnick
3.99 avg rating — 1,088 ratings 74. 
The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles
by:
Gary Krist
4.14 avg rating — 2,026 ratings