With the publication of this fourth edition, the stewardship of Cranes and Derricks passes to a new generation.

And yet, it is not a complete change of tenure. My coauthor brother Jay and I have been part of this project from its start in the 1970s. As a teenager, I snapped and printed photographs that carry into the present edition. In our college years, we both critiqued portions of the original manuscript and even crafted a few lines. Finally, as practicing engineers and business partners, we shared with our father in the writing of the second and third editions. My brother and I both developed areas of expertise that gave us the ability to contribute meaningfully to the second and third editions. Despite equal billing with our father as authors, there had never been a question that he was the maestro, the creator of Cranes and Derricks, and the only person in the world who was in full command of all of its subject matter. When an occasional someone would refer to it as Howard s book, there was no point in either of us contradicting. The passing of Howard Shapiro in 2007 was followed soon after by a request from McGraw-Hill for a new edition. Jay and I were confronted with the choice of abandoning the book or stepping up to the plate. Despite the concurrent commitment of running a very active professional firm, neither of us had a doubt that we would take it on. At the beginning, we preferred not to dwell on the magnitude of the project. But the actual task of revising the text was eased by the comforting sense that the writing was a continuation of dialog and collaboration with our father. Every chapter of the book has been revised, some more than others. The overall goal of our effort was to bring the text up to date with contemporary practices and technology, make it more accessible and useful to a broader audience, and better serve the crane world outside the United States. Largely, the intent of each of the eight xv