Pinball Effect: Journeys Through Knowledge

In this captivating, intriguing program, author and television host James Burke takes you on five voyages through the great, dynamic web of historical change to show "how sometimes the simplest act will have cosmic repercussions a hundred years later." Continuing the journey that began with Connections and continued with The Day the Universe Changed and The Axemaker's Gift, Burke draws on years of research and his powerful storytelling abilities to illuminate "the cliff-hanging, detective-story excitement of the myriad different processes by which change occurs."

 Among these extraordinary historical tours, Burke shows how racing cars owe their victories to the development of photography; how weapons, aircraft and medical technology each exist in part because the others exist; and he traces the amazing steps on a journey that begins with the efforts to abolish slavery and leads to the heart of our nuclear reactors.

 Few can look at human history and see it as an intricate mosaic of neatly interlocking pieces. Fewer still can describe the patterns and explain the parts of the puzzle so that it all not only makes sense, but also excites and entertains. James Burke has done all that and more in his previous books, and now in The Pinball Effect he does it - and does it marvelously well - again.