Steel is the metal that built the modern world. When its formula was finally deciphered about 150 years ago, it began to flow from hearths in increasing amounts. It built railroads, steel ships, skyscrapers, and bridges around the world, in the process propelling the great powers of the world -- Great Britain, Germany, the United States, Japan, and the Soviet Union -- into global economic dominance.

In Steel, author Brooke C. Stoddard follows the fascinating story of iron and steel from pre-history through the Industrial Revolution and into the present age. Stoddard then dives into the world of modern steelmaking, joining the men and women who live in this world every day: he visits open-pit iron mines in the Mesabi Iron range, rides with 58,000 tons of iron ore on a thousand-foot ore boat from Duluth to Cleveland, climbs to the top of the country’s largest blast furnace, interviews workers as they toil next to their furnaces of liquid metal, and walks through the immense rolling mills where steel is pressed into products.

The result is an extraordinary book about what many may think of as ordinary, but in reality is the metal that forms the backbone of modern civilization.

Kent Cassella

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