THE TIMES SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR
**Shortlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award**
Picked as a Book of the Year by FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST and NEW STATESMAN
A BBC RADIO 4 Book of the Week

'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
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Sand, 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.

"An eye-opening celebration of human ingenuity" - Financial Times, Best Books of 2023 - Business

"Fascinating . . . A revelation" - The Times, Best Science and Environment Books of 2023

"Brilliant" - Financial Times - Best Summer Books of 2023: Economics

"Revealing and empowering" - New Statesman, Best Summer Books of 2023

"[An] enlightening account... he throws new light on how the world works... Not a sentence jars in Material World" - The Times

"A vivid guide to the “material world” on which we all, often unconsciously, rely – and essential background reading to understand securonomics" - New Statesman, Books of the Year 2023

"'[Conway's] book deconstructs the modern world for us to see inside ... As we fret and argue about how to tackle climate change, economic development and geopolitical tensions, this book is a timely reminder of our reliance on physical stuff, and offers a challenging, practical perspective on these debates ... Enlightening " - Bloomberg

"Goes straight on the 'must-read' list ... Conway is one of the most adroit commentators on economics and business of our time" - City AM

"[A] masterful exploration of the materials that underpin civilisation . . . The biography of an element or material is now a familiar format . . . but what distinguishes Material World is his access . . . This is not a remote, academic analysis: he has been to the salt mines beneath the North Sea, the mineral railway of the Atacama Desert, the Chilean town being swallowed by the world's demand for copper" - New Statesman

"One of the most interesting books I have read in a really, really long time. It's absolutely brilliant [...] buy it, right now" - Merryn Talks Money

"Lucid... fascinating" - Financial Times

"Lively and impeccably written - a welcome addition to the way-the-world-works literature" - Kirkus - starred review

"Compelling - and alarming " - New Yorker

"Rich in revelations . . . [Conway’s] analogies bring the scientific processes to life . . . Offers a fascinating lens on the intricacies of the modern supply chain, the underappreciated science behind everyday objects, and the ways that subtle - and not so subtle - changes in governmental policies shift the role of these materials in the global economy" - Foreign Policy