Combines historical perspective with personal profiles of inventors to explain the events that influenced the development of such items as plastic, rockets, & television. Provides accounts of ten significant twentieth-century inventions and the people behind them, including the Wright brothers and their airplane, Robert Goddard and his rocket, and Gordon Gould and his laser. Each volume in the American Profiles series provides middle and high school students with concise information on eight to thirteen important and influential figures in a particular field of endeavor. Profiles are organized around a movement, event, or profession that has had a significant, lasting impact on American history and contemporary life. Essential biographical information is included for each figure, but the heart of each profile describes the critical achievements and contributions of the individual under consideration and assesses the subject's significance, not only in the context of the person's own lifetime, but in the broader sweep of American history. Placing each figure's achievements and contributions in a historical context makes each profile the ideal source for preparing reports. Students can use this framework as a basis for comparisons and contrasts, which will give them a better understanding of how individuals shape, and are shaped by, the times in which they live. Profiles: The Wright Brothers; Leo Baekeland; Robert Hutchings Goddard; Vladimir Zworykin; Chester Carlson; Howard Aiken; Gordon Gould; Ernest Lawrence; William Shockley; and Wilson Greatbatch.