Great Lives from History: Inventors and Inventions features 450 essays covering inventors from all time, around the world. All essays have been reviewed and enhanced where applicable, and new inventors added, for this overhauled second edition. The editors have included inventors recognized for shaping modern technology and the way we live today. The editor's criteria for including these individuals in this publication took into account their fame as inventors, the significance of their inventions, the amount of time they spent inventing, their representation of world inventors, their relevance to class curricula, and their interest to high school, undergraduate, and general readers.