Eight Books That Explain How the World Works

Maybe this sounds familiar: You’ve stared idly through an airplane’s window and wondered, How exactly does that jet engine work? Or you’ve tracked a shipment from across the country, refreshing UPS’s website, and realized you have no idea how that package will actually make its way to your door. Or you’ve been notified that you must boil your tap water after an overnight “loss of pressure”—without knowing what that means, or why it’s affecting you.

Modern society has been shaped by, and depends on, many complex, interlocked systems—GPS, the internet, transoceanic shipping. But even the most tech-savvy person might struggle to get a handle on every detail. And these technological advances come with a strange caveat: The more fundamental and seamless the arrangement is, the less we think about how it operates. As a result, we take our infrastructure for granted—at least until a massive ship gets stuck in the Suez Canal, or a Florida condo building suddenly collapses.

The books in the list below explain our world with much-needed clarity, exposing how marvels such as skyscrapers, computer chips, and the global supply chain are put together. As a group,