Perspective

The New Way Things Work is written and illustrated by David Macaulay, with technical text written by Neil Ardley. It is a revision and update of Macaulay's 1988 book entitled simply: The Way Things Work. Though Ardley's text contributes much information, the book embodies the work and style of David Macaulay. Macaulay moved to America from the UK in his youth and found tremendous comfort and passion in drawing. He eventually studied architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design and graduated convinced that he never wanted to go into the field. Instead, he worked at various jobs including teaching and writing illustrated children's books. Macaulay put his background in art and architecture into his books on architectural structures before using his detailed drawings for explaining machines and molecules in The New Way Things Work. His style of illustration has the simple lines of a cartoon with the complex...