by Ed Conway, 2023, Kindle Edition, Knopf

I found this to be an extremely interesting book. It delves into the basic materials (sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium) that are used to build just about everything. I had no idea where this stuff came from, or the methods used to extract the materials from the earth.

Conway has done a magnificent job of visiting and researching the sites where the materials are extracted as well as the sites where they are processed into intermediate materials and finished products. His personal observations add much to the narrative. I was amazed at the extent to which these processes have been altered and refined over the years as the materials themselves have become ever scarcer.

The author cites many statistics that are surprising to me. He indicates that an all-electric bus requires about 1,000 pounds of copper in the coils and wiring. I find that a bit hard to believe, but I have yet to fact check it. I was amazed at the sheer quantities of material that is involved in the manufacture of our everyday goods. I now look at the edifices of some buildings and marvel at the amount of steel that I see. Now that I understand more about where it comes from and how its manufactured, I can’t get over how much of it is around us. Conway attributes our ability to do all of this to the fact that we have managed to make the extraction and processing of these materials so cheap (the exception being lithium which, at the current time, is still very scarce in relation to our needs).

I recommend this book to anyone who is curious about our world and how it came to be what it is today. For those who are not so inclined, maybe it’s best to stick to crime novels.