The products of industry are omnipresent; at home, in the street, they form the man-made landscape of our lives. The author's highly original, broadly based approach shows how many and how diverse are the forces that have shaped the manufactured forms surrounding us during the past two centuries: the creativity of individual designers and design teams, technical innovations, economic and social pressures, and always the simultaneous and conflicting demands for continuity and change. 180 illus.