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Description
Material WorldBy: Ed Conway THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE AN ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. These fundamental materials have created empires, razed civilizations, and fed our ingenuity and greed for thousands of years. Without them, our modern world would not exist, and the battle to control them will determine our future. Finalist for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award The
By: Ed ConwayTHE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE • AN ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. These fundamental materials have created empires, razed civilizations, and fed our ingenuity and greed for thousands of years. Without them, our modern world would not exist, and the battle to control them will determine our future. • Finalist for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award
The fiber-optic cables that weave the World Wide Web, the copper veins of our electric grids, 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 to metal. 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 of the 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.
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4.1 ★★★★★
Based on 21 reviews
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Product Reviews
★★★★★ 5
Highly recommended!
Format: Hardcover
I first saw this book at a relative’s house and was immediately drawn in by its content. There’s no text at all, yet it captures children’s interest so strongly—especially when learning the concept of numbers. The illustrations are also beautiful. When my child didn’t yet understand numbers, it was still fun to recognize the animals or see what the characters in the pictures were doing. I really love this book.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2025
★★★★★ 5
A Multi-faceted, beautiful book for babies through primary grades.
Format: Hardcover
Our second generation is now loving this beautiful, clever, playful book. Although there are no words, the story line is a delight. A watercolored village develops one page to the next starting with 0 and ending with 12. The pictures add one item in each category for each new number, building on the previous scene. Readers can find and count buildings, children, adults, pine trees, cherry trees, and an assortment of animals. In addition, in a lovely subtle manner, the four northern hemisphere seasons pass from January to December. The details of adult and child activities through time and seasons can be noted. Anno's creativity in this genre is unsurpassed. For my children, and now for my grandson, this book evokes fascination on several levels both aesthetic and intellectual. Start using it as a baby word book, and it will last as a joy throughout early childhood. Not every baby book must be a board book. Teaching children to turn pages gently is easy to do and adds to the amazing, shared experience.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2015
★★★★★ 5
Gorgeous book!
Format: Hardcover
Read this over and over with my own children and they loved it. Buying for friends' children/grandchildren and they are loving it, too. Timeless, lots to capture kids' interest and counting. The suggested age is 3 and up, but we used it earlier than 3 years of age; it depends on the child. We're buying them now for newborns figuring they'll "grow into it."
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Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2021
★★★★★ 4
A truly original concept picture book. Unlike most counting ...
Format: Hardcover
A truly original concept picture book. Unlike most counting concept books that only show one item type (like 2 balls on the page about 2) this book has many items to count on each number page (3 trees, 3 trains, 3 cows, etc, on the pages about the number 3). You have to search around to find each of the items because the author moves the items around each time. :) Yes, it's not as flashy, but it's got what really counts!
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Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2016
★★★★★ 5
Excellent early math book
Format: Paperback
I found this book on a recommended Early Math reading list posted on the PBS Parents website.
Since there are no words in this book, there is nothing to actually read to your child. But it is likely one of the longest 12 page books I've read. And it is by far the most significant number book my 3 year old has read.
Anno uses a town to depict and define numbers 0-12, the seasons, and the months of the year. The seasons and months are recognizeable, but not the focus like the numbers are. For the number 0, you see a blank landscape with a small river. When the child turns the page, he sees a large number 1 on the right side of the book and in the landscape one lone building, one tree, one sun, one snowman.... There is also a set of blocks on the left side of the book, with one block colored in. Thus, the child can see the number 1 represented as a numeral, as a block (of a set of 10), and as an object (one building, one tree, one person). As you turn the pages and the numbers increase, a village forms. The final page is the number 12 -- a full village at Christmas time, complete with 12 reindeer in the sky.
As a parent, I enjoy having my daughter "read" to me. But I am most amazed by how the book has helped her to grasp the concept of numbers. As she explained, "0, Mommy. Because there's nothing there."
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Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2009