Material World by Ed Conway is an exploration of six of the most important resources that humans have mined and use everyday. Conway explores the historical and the current uses and production of these materials. He tells wonderful stories and presents data in a clear and concise format. Each section is divided into three chapters each exploring a different facet of that material's use by humans. There are fascinating tidbits weaved throughout the stories. It is obvious that Conway did his research and is passionate about these topics. His enthusiasm for materials science, history, and economics is contagious through the pages!

A valuable exploration of the global supply chain and pivotal role that six materials play in the modern economy: sand (read: glass and silicon), copper, oil (which is a little cheesily expanded to other fossil fuels), lithium, iron, and salt. It's an interesting companion piece to certain other books I've read recently, such as [book:The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization|58782897] by Peter Zeihan, and to a certain extent is a defense of free trade and globalism -- inasmuch as it's making the point that, as appealing as the idea of "reshoring" critical supply chains might be, increasing self-sufficiency and insuring against international economic shocks, there's only so far you can take that. There are just too many little pieces of, say, the semiconductor manufacturing process that are reliant on ONE main part of the world for component materials (whether than be a couple of specialized manufacturers in Taiwan or Germany or particular grades of raw material only found in Chile or the Appalachian United States or the UK). Really interesting, if perhaps only to people who are already inclined toward the subject.

Stunning really. There is no other way to say it. This book was mesmerizing. It was so thorough and yet unlike other books of its type it didn't come across as being overly dense. I didn't feel like I needed to have a certain amount of base knowledge about this subject before I read it. Which is a tremendous achievement actually. To tell a story about very complex things while taking the reader through it who probably has no knowledge about the subject is very impressive. I was hooked from the very first page and devoured it.

"Material World" is a wonderful book authored by Ed Conway. Indeed, it is one of the very best books that I have ever read. Mr. Conway traces the history and future availability of six key materials: Salt, Sand, Iron, Copper, Oil, and Lithium. Not only is this book most informative, it is also well written so it holds a reader's attention. It is also a great follow-on text to Vaclav Smils "How the Word Works." Indeed, interested readers should probably read both of these excellent books. I cannot recommend both of them more highly enough.