Player Piano

by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

It is mostly about managers and engineers. At this point in history, 1952 A.D., our lives and freedom depend largely upon the skill and imagination and courage of our managers and engineers, and I hope that God will help them to help us all stay alive and free. But this book is about another point in history, when there is no more war, and …

Here, in the basin of the river bend, the Mohawks had overpowered the Algonquins, the Dutch the Mohawks, the British the Dutch, the Americans the British.

It was as though a navigator, in order to free his mind of worries, had erased all the reefs from his maps.

We’ll rediscover the two greatest wonders of the world, the human mind and hand.”

“Clunkle” went the coin, and then a whir,