One Good Turn · A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw

**The Best Tool of the Millennium**

The seeds of Rybczynski's elegant and illuminating new book were sown by *The New York Times,* whose editors asked him to write an essay identifying "the best tool of the millennium." The award-winning author of *Home* , *A Clearing in the Distance* , and *Now I Sit Me Down* , Rybczynski once built a house using only hand tools. His intimate knowledge of the toolbox -- both its contents and its history -- serves him beautifully on his quest.

*One Good Turn* is a story starring Archimedes, who invented the water screw and introduced the helix, and Leonardo, who sketched a machine for carving wood screws. It is a story of mechanical discovery and genius that takes readers from ancient Greece to car design in the age of American industry. Rybczynski writes an ode to the screw, without which there would be no telescope, no microscope -- in short, no enlightenment science. One of our finest cultural and architectural historians, Rybczynski renders a graceful, original, and engaging portrait of the tool that changed the course of civilization.