Material World

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER and RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK *An Economist , Financial Times , Times and New Statesman Book of the Year* Shortlisted for the FT Business Book of the Year Award and the British Academy Book Prize, Longlisted for the Wainwright Conservation Writing Prize 'Compelling' TIM MARSHALL 'Lively, rich and exciting' PETER FRANKOPAN 'Vitally important' TIM HARFORD _____________ Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium. They built our world, and they will transform our future. They took us from the Dark Ages to the present day. They power our computers and phones, build our homes and offices, and create life-saving medicines. But most of us take these six crucial materials completely for granted. In Material World , Ed Conway travels the globe to uncover a secret world we rarely see. As we wrestle with climate change, energy crises and the threat of new global conflict, Conway shows why these substances matter more than ever before, and how the hidden battle to control them will shape our geopolitical future.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER and RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK *An Economist , Financial Times , Times and New Statesman Book of the Year* Shortlisted for the FT Business Book of the Year Award and the British Academy Book Prize, Longlisted for the Wainwright Conservation Writing Prize 'Compelling' TIM MARSHALL 'Lively, rich and exciting' PETER FRANKOPAN 'Vitally important' TIM HARFORD _____________ Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium. They built our world, and they will transform our future. They took us from the Dark Ages to the present day. They power our computers and phones, build our homes and offices, and create life-saving medicines. But most of us take these six crucial materials completely for granted. In Material World , Ed Conway travels the globe to uncover a secret world we rarely see. As we wrestle with climate change, energy crises and the threat of new global conflict, Conway shows why these substances matter more than ever before, and how the hidden battle to control them will shape our geopolitical future.

Brought to you by Penguin.THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERSand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium. They built our world, and they will transform our future.These are the six most crucial substances in human history. They took us from the Dark Ages to the present day. They power our computers and phones, build our homes and offices, and create life-saving medicines. But most of us take them completely for granted.In Material World, Ed Conway travels the globe - from the sweltering depths of the deepest mine in Europe, to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan, to the eerie green pools where lithium originates - to uncover a secret world we rarely see. Revealing the true marvel of these substances, he follows the mind-boggling journeys, miraculous processes and little-known companies that turn the raw materials we all need into products of astonishing complexity.As we wrestle with climate change, energy crises and the threat of new global conflict, Conway shows why these substances matter more than ever before, and how the hidden battle to control them will shape our geopolitical future. This is the story of civilisation - our ambitions and glory, innovations and appetites - from a new perspective: literally from the ground up.'A compelling narrative of the human story' TIM MARSHALL, author of Prisoners of Geography'Lively, rich and exciting... full of surprises' PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads(c)2023 Ed Conway (P)2023 Penguin Audio

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE - AN ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR - Finalist for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. These fundamental materials have created empires, razed civilizations and fed our ingenuity and our greed for thousands of years. Without them, our modern world would not exist, and the battle to control them will determine our future. The fiber-optic cables that weave the World Wide Web, the copper veins of our electric grid, the silicon chips and lithium batteries that power our phones and cars: though it can feel like we now live in a weightless world of information--what Ed Conway calls "the ethereal world"--our twenty-first-century lives are still very much rooted in the material. In fact, we dug more stuff out of the earth in 2017 than in all of human history before 1950. For every ton of fossil fuels, we extract six tons of other materials, from sand to stone to wood tometal. And in Material World , Conway embarks on an epic journey across continents, cultures and epochs to reveal the underpinnings of modern life on Earth--traveling from the sweltering depths ofthe deepest mine in Europe to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan to the eerie green pools where lithium originates. Material World is a celebration of the humans and the human networks, the miraculous processes and the little-known companies, that combine to turn raw materials into things of wonder. This is the story of human civilization from an entirely new perspective: the ground up.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE - AN ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR - Finalist for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. These fundamental materials have created empires, razed civilizations and fed our ingenuity and our greed for thousands of years. Without them, our modern world would not exist, and the battle to control them will determine our future. The fiber-optic cables that weave the World Wide Web, the copper veins of our electric grid, the silicon chips and lithium batteries that power our phones and cars: though it can feel like we now live in a weightless world of information--what Ed Conway calls "the ethereal world"--our twenty-first-century lives are still very much rooted in the material. In fact, we dug more stuff out of the earth in 2017 than in all of human history before 1950. For every ton of fossil fuels, we extract six tons of other materials, from sand to stone to wood tometal. And in Material World , Conway embarks on an epic journey across continents, cultures and epochs to reveal the underpinnings of modern life on Earth--traveling from the sweltering depths ofthe deepest mine in Europe to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan to the eerie green pools where lithium originates. Material World is a celebration of the humans and the human networks, the miraculous processes and the little-known companies, that combine to turn raw materials into things of wonder. This is the story of human civilization from an entirely new perspective: the ground up.

This beloved photography collection--called "Fascinating! An incredible book" by Oprah Winfrey--vividly portrays the look and feel of the human condition everywhere on Earth In an unprecedented effort, sixteen of the world's foremost photographers traveled to thirty nations around the globe to live for a week with families that were statistically average for that nation. At the end of each visit, photographer and family collaborated on a remarkable portrait of the family members outside their home, surrounded by all of their possessions; a few jars and jugs for some, an explosion of electronic gadgetry for others. This internationally acclaimed bestseller puts a human face on the issues of population, environment, social justice, and consumption as it illuminates the crucial question facing our species today: Can all six billion of us have all the things we want?

This beloved photography collection--called "Fascinating! An incredible book" by Oprah Winfrey--vividly portrays the look and feel of the human condition everywhere on Earth In an unprecedented effort, sixteen of the world's foremost photographers traveled to thirty nations around the globe to live for a week with families that were statistically average for that nation. At the end of each visit, photographer and family collaborated on a remarkable portrait of the family members outside their home, surrounded by all of their possessions; a few jars and jugs for some, an explosion of electronic gadgetry for others. This internationally acclaimed bestseller puts a human face on the issues of population, environment, social justice, and consumption as it illuminates the crucial question facing our species today: Can all six billion of us have all the things we want?