Review:
This is organized into thirteen chapters: "Out of the Earth" (mining), "Waterworks," "Food and Farming," "Oil and Gas," "Power Plants," "The Power Grid," "Communications," "On the Road" (roads, highways), "The Railway," "Bridges and Tunnels," "Aviation," "Shipping," and "Wastes and Recycling."
Of the infrastructure books I've read so far, this one uses probably the broadest definition of "infrastructure" - I didn't disagree with it, but it meant that there were areas that were covered that I hadn't encountered before, at least not in this way. It made me wish that Hayes had occasionally stopped and provided "big picture" diagrams of how things worked, rather than just photographs of particular examples. Particularly for the things that were entirely new to me, diagrams probably would have made more sense than photographs.
This was not a quick read. I struggled through the first chapter on mining and considered DNFing, only to find my interest renewed in the chapter on waterworks. I eventually figured out that there were just some aspects of infrastructure that interested me more than others and made myself keep going. It probably didn't help that, physically, this book was awkward to read, heavy and a bit too large to hold comfortably.
Still, I appreciated Hayes' enthusiasm for the subject and that there were photographs of nearly everything he talked about in the book. This edition was published in 2014, and I couldn't help but wonder how certain sections might have differed in a more up-to-date volume. For sure there would have been more in the portion about data centers.
All in all, this was a worthwhile read, even if it was occasionally a struggle for me.
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