Boston, 1868. The Civil War may be over but a new war has begun, one between
the past and the present, tradition and technology. On a former marshy
wasteland, the daring Massachusetts Institute of Technology is rising, its
mission to harness science for the benefit of all and to open the doors of
opportunity to everyone of merit. But in Boston Harbor
a fiery cataclysm throws commerce into chaos, as ships' instruments spin
inexplicably out of control. Soon after, another mysterious catastrophe
devastates the heart of the city. Is it sabotage by scientific means or Nature
revolting against man's attempt to control it? The shocking disasters cast a
pall over M.I.T. and provoke assaults from all sides--rival Harvard, labor
unions, and a sensationalistic press. With their first graduation and the very
survival of their groundbreaking college now in doubt, a band of the
Institute's best and brightest students secretly come together to save innocent
lives and track down the truth, armed with ingenuity and their unique
scientific training. Led by "charity scholar" Marcus Mansfield, a
quiet Civil War veteran and one-time machinist struggling to find his footing
in rarefied Boston society, the group is rounded out by irrepressible Robert
Richards, the bluest of Beacon Hill bluebloods; Edwin Hoyt, class genius; and
brilliant freshman Ellen Swallow, the Institute's lone, ostracized female
student. Working against their small secret society, from within and without,
are the arrayed forces of a stratified culture determined to resist change at
all costs and a dark mastermind bent on the utter destruction of the city. Studded
with suspense and soaked in the rich historical atmosphere for which its author
is renowned, "The Technologists" is a dazzling journey into a
dangerous world not so very far from our own, as the America we know today
begins to shimmer into being..”
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