Structures. Why They Stand and Why They Fall Apart

In this book, James Gordon brilliantly manages to explain complex technical concepts simply: what structures (natural and artificial) are, how they are built, how they work, what keeps them from collapsing, and what tears them apart, which physical laws are... to blame and who discovered these laws.
Informally and wittily, but without excessive simplification, the author explains how powerful forces prevent buildings from falling apart, cable-stayed bridges from collapsing under the weight of eight lanes of traffic, and dams from holding back thousands of tons of water. Conversely, why phenomena such as tension, twisting, shear, and compression still lead to disasters, wings coming off airplanes and legs breaking in people.
Thanks to its relaxed presentation, the encyclopedic volume of facts, causes, and effects is perceived as an engaging conversation that goes by unnoticed and leaves the reader with a pleasant feeling that they already knew all this (or at least had a hunch), and finally, this knowledge has been skillfully sorted out for them.
The book is addressed to everyone who is interested in the physical foundations and structure of the material world around us.