“Winchester is a longtime journalist turned author, a meticulous researcher and catholic thinker.” — James Gleick, The New York Review of Books

“Another gem from one of the world’s justly celebrated historians specializing in unusual and always fascinating subjects and people.” — Booklist (starred review)

“Winchester’s latest is a rollicking work of pop science that entertains and informs.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Praise for The Men Who United the States: “Entertaining. . . . A pleasure.” — New York Times Book Review

“Simon Winchester never disappoints, and The Men Who United the States is a lively and surprising account of how this sprawling piece of geography became a nation. This is America from the ground up. Inspiring and engaging.” — Tom Brokaw

“An enthusiastic popular-science tour of technological marvels…readers will love the ride.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“A rousing tribute to the alliances, agencies, and inventions—from Lewis and Clark to the Internet—that underpin our more perfect union. A stunning, highly original feast of a book.” — Stacy Schiff, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Cleopatra

“Vivid, valuable. . . . An extraordinary, propulsive tale.” — Wall Street Journal

“[M]esmerizing and fascinating. . . . Mr. Winchester is a master storyteller, and all the individuals, places, and events that he passionately writes about come to life in exquisite detail.” — New York Journal of Books

Precision is so essential a component of contemporary human life and existence that we seldom stop to think about it. Simon Winchester’s The Perfectionists examines the relatively recent development of the notion of precision—the people who developed it and the ways in which it has shaped the modern world—and the challenges posed and losses risked by our veneration and pursuit of increasingly precise tools and methods.

The history of precision as a concept and in practice begins in England with its originators: John Wilkinson, Henry Maudslay, Joseph Bramah, Jesse Ramsden, and Joseph Whitworth. It was Thomas Jefferson who first exported their discoveries to the fledgling United States, setting the nation on its course to become a manufacturing titan. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, standards of measurement were established, giving way to the development of machine tools—machines that make machines. Eventually, the application of precision tools and methods in the development of guns, glass, mirrors, lenses, and cameras gave way to further advancements, including gene splicing, microchips, and the Hadron Collider.