Rust
The Longest War
by Jonathan Waldman
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon
Buy on BN.com
Buy on Bookshop.org
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Mar 10 2015 | Archive Date Apr 29 2015
Description
Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize ** A Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year
It has been called “the great destroyer” and “the evil.” The Pentagon refers to it as “the pervasive menace.” It destroys cars, fells bridges, sinks ships, sparks house fires, and nearly brought down the Statue of Liberty. Rust costs America more than $400 billion per year—more than all other natural disasters combined.
In a thrilling drama of man versus nature, journalist Jonathan Waldman travels from Key West, Florida, to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to meet the colorful and often reclusive people who are fighting our mightiest and unlikeliest enemy. He sneaks into an abandoned steelworks with a brave artist, and then he nearly gets kicked out of Ball Corporation’s Can School. Across the Arctic, he follows a massive high-tech robot that hunts for rust in the Alaska pipeline. On a Florida film set he meets the Defense Department’s rust ambassador, who reveals that the navy’s number one foe isn’t a foreign country but oxidation itself. At Home Depot’s mother ship in Atlanta, he hunts unsuccessfully for rust products with the store’s rust-products buyer—and then tracks down some snake-oil salesmen whose potions are not for sale at the Rust Store. Along the way, Waldman encounters flying pigs, Trekkies, decapitations, exploding Coke cans, rust boogers, and nerdy superheroes.
The result is a fresh and often funny account of an overlooked engineering endeavor that is as compelling as it is grand, illuminating a hidden phenomenon that shapes the modern world. Rust affects everything from the design of our currency to the composition of our tap water, and it will determine the legacy we leave on this planet. This exploration of corrosion, and the incredible lengths we go to fight it, is narrative nonfiction at its very best—a fascinating and important subject, delivered with energy and wit.
It has been called “the great destroyer” and “the evil.” The Pentagon refers to it as “the pervasive menace.” It destroys cars, fells bridges, sinks ships, sparks house fires, and nearly brought down the Statue of Liberty. Rust costs America more than $400 billion per year—more than all other natural disasters combined.
In a thrilling drama of man versus nature, journalist Jonathan Waldman travels from Key West, Florida, to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to meet the colorful and often reclusive people who are fighting our mightiest and unlikeliest enemy. He sneaks into an abandoned steelworks with a brave artist, and then he nearly gets kicked out of Ball Corporation’s Can School. Across the Arctic, he follows a massive high-tech robot that hunts for rust in the Alaska pipeline. On a Florida film set he meets the Defense Department’s rust ambassador, who reveals that the navy’s number one foe isn’t a foreign country but oxidation itself. At Home Depot’s mother ship in Atlanta, he hunts unsuccessfully for rust products with the store’s rust-products buyer—and then tracks down some snake-oil salesmen whose potions are not for sale at the Rust Store. Along the way, Waldman encounters flying pigs, Trekkies, decapitations, exploding Coke cans, rust boogers, and nerdy superheroes.
The result is a fresh and often funny account of an overlooked engineering endeavor that is as compelling as it is grand, illuminating a hidden phenomenon that shapes the modern world. Rust affects everything from the design of our currency to the composition of our tap water, and it will determine the legacy we leave on this planet. This exploration of corrosion, and the incredible lengths we go to fight it, is narrative nonfiction at its very best—a fascinating and important subject, delivered with energy and wit.
Available Editions
EDITION | Other Format |
ISBN | 9781451691597 |
PRICE | $26.95 (USD) |
Readers who liked this book also liked:
None Is Too Many
By Irving Abella and Harold Troper Foreword by Richard Menkis Afterword by David S. Koffman
History, Politics & Current Affairs
By Irving Abella and Harold Troper Foreword by Richard Menkis Afterword by David S. Koffman
History, Politics & Current Affairs
The Colossal Book of Incredible Facts for Curious Minds
Nigel Henbest; Simon Brew; Sarah Tomley; Ken Okona-Mensah; Tom Parfitt; Trevor Davies; Chas Newkey-Burden
Entertainment & Pop Culture, Humor & Satire, Nonfiction (Adult)
Nigel Henbest; Simon Brew; Sarah Tomley; Ken Okona-Mensah; Tom Parfitt; Trevor Davies; Chas Newkey-Burden
Entertainment & Pop Culture, Humor & Satire, Nonfiction (Adult)
Breaking Canadians
Nili Kaplan-Myrth | Foreword by Brian Goldman | Afterword by Sue Robins
Essays & Collections, Health, Mind & Body, Politics & Current Affairs
Nili Kaplan-Myrth | Foreword by Brian Goldman | Afterword by Sue Robins
Essays & Collections, Health, Mind & Body, Politics & Current Affairs
Vaccines and Your Family
Paul A. Offit; Charlotte A. Moser
Health, Mind & Body, Parenting & Families, Science
Paul A. Offit; Charlotte A. Moser
Health, Mind & Body, Parenting & Families, Science
The Complete Book of AMC Cars
Patrick R. Foster; Tom Glatch
Business, Leadership, Finance, Crafts & Hobbies, Nonfiction (Adult)
Patrick R. Foster; Tom Glatch
Business, Leadership, Finance, Crafts & Hobbies, Nonfiction (Adult)