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Steel
Steel provides the backbone for modern civilization - read all about its history, journey, and place in the world.What is steel? How does it work? Why has it been so important? Who are the people who make it? How do they make it? From Mine to Mill, the Metal that Made America answers these questions.Improperly understood until about 150 years ago and available until then only in small quantities, the metal itself is a delicate dance of iron crystals interspersed with carbon and - depending on intended service - other elements such as nickel, chromium, and molybdenum. Once deciphered, steel began to flow from hearths in increasing amounts for the building of railroads, steel ships, skyscrapers, and bridges, in the process raising to world economic dominance Great Britain, Germany, the United States, Japan, and the Soviet Union. The world's current largest producer is China.While researching this book, author Brooke C. Stoddard descended into Mesabi Iron Range open-pit iron mines, rode with 58,000 tons of iron ore on a 1,000-foot ore boat from Duluth to Cleveland, climbed to the top of the hemisphere's largest blast furnace, interviewed men as they toiled next to their furnaces of liquid steel, and walked the immense rolling mills where steel is pressed into finished products.Along the way, he wrote a narrative of iron and steel from pre-history through the Industrial Revolution and into the present age.Steel is the sinew of modern civilization.
307 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 30, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 1, 2019
Good book as an overview for a steel history till 1940s
The first half of this book is amazing, but the second one feels like a very brief summary of the last 50 years of this amazing sector. Highly recommended to read the first part of the book until the story about Great Lakes
The first half of this book is amazing, but the second one feels like a very brief summary of the last 50 years of this amazing sector. Highly recommended to read the first part of the book until the story about Great Lakes
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December 27, 2024Good context on discovery of steel and its evolution from the ancient to modern era. Explains rise and fall of American steel industry in non biased fashion. Chapter 7 could be helpful to anyone who wants to understand the current Nippon Steel and US Steel situation a little better.
August 21, 2020
A spirited description of one of America’s foundation industries. When I was working the steel portfolio for the State Department, I always said that every country has to have an airline and a steel industry before it can call itself a grown-up country. That’s why we had so many small countries like Trinidad and Tobago trying to produce and market steel. The entry of all these players into the market created political and economic frictions and ultimately yielded 20% global overcapacity.
Through it all, the United States produced more steel than any other country the world and truly was a leader in providing quality innovative products made out of steel. (Even now in the 21st Century our pipe and tube is unrivaled.) Steel was the backbone of our railroads, our shipping industry, our automobile industry, and our food packaging industry. This book tells the story of the rise and the fall of the steel industry and its economic partners.
So much of what Brooke Stoddard describes has been part of my life and career for years. Visiting steel mills, watching the heats pour out of the mini-mill furnaces or the pressed steel feed through the continuous casters, I understood why the Carnegies and Rockefellers kept saying, “More!” “Bigger!” Steel is so hot, so bright, and so huge. It was easy to see how we built too much capacity. I also understand how America ended up with out-dated equipment and technology. After the war, we helped Europe and Japan recover. That included restoring their industrial might - but bigger factories with more modern technology.
Bob Dylan wrote a song back in the sixties, North Country Blues, about the death of a mining town up on the Great Lakes. He actually grew up in one of the communities there, so he really knew that story personally. I loved that song back then; little did I know I’d come to spend so much of my own career working those issues from the government side. First I represented State in shaping a policy deal with steel imports. I traveled to mills in the U.S., Japan, and Hungary. I negotiated 21 VRAs. And I grew to love the complexity of the steel industry and the people who make it. Stoddard talks about Lakshmi Mittal, now owner of the world’s largest steel producer, Mittal Steel. He based himself in London back in 2005, where his son had a crush on Nani! The plant in Trinidad and Tobago was built and operated by Mittal. So, when I was pregnant with Nani and negotiating with the T&T government, the mill they were advocating for was the Mittal mill. Minister Gordon gave me that lovely teddy bear that we still have!
Stoddard also dedicates pages to the final years of Bethlehem Steel, particularly Sparrows Point. I remember going to Sparrows Point. We watched the cold-rolled sheet come out of the rollers and onto the coil. Some men were working the stands and managing that process. Others stood around at the end and waited for a coil to come out before they did anything. The environment had a sluggish feel; they got paid, no matter what, so no hurry - and no big orders to rush through to make room for the next one. In talking to others, I’ve often used what I saw during that visit as an example of featherbedding.
In 2002, Wilbur Ross bought LTV and renamed it International Steel Group (ISG). Later, when Bethlehem, too, declared bankruptcy, Ross stepped in again and bought it, working out a deal with the unions to cut the numbers of positions required for certain tasks and to peg wages to productivity. Not until the third reference to Ross did it occur to me that he’s our current Secretary of Commerce! Yes, the one who falls asleep in meetings with Saudi royalty. The one who expressed surprise that anyone affected by COVID-19 would go to a food bank. “Why not just take out a personal loan?” Yes, that guy! Apparently he helped Trump save his casinos in Atlantic City back during a financial crisis, so the Cabinet is his reward.
A poetic ending to the book; it summarizes the shifts in the global steel industry and links those to the fate of Bethlehem Steel - not a surprise given that one of Stoddard’s chief sources is a history of the plant. Fittingly, the last sentences in this book speak of Sparrows Point. “Sparrows Point, where once iron flowed like water and men bent away from the sight of it, reverted again to a mere patch of land - home for birds, lizards, and bugs, its industrial work in the world finished. Sparrows Point, once the largest steel mill in the world, fell as silent as the marshland it was when Chester Arthur was president and Sioux Indians commanded the Great Plains.”
As you can tell, I love steel and I liked this book a lot!
Through it all, the United States produced more steel than any other country the world and truly was a leader in providing quality innovative products made out of steel. (Even now in the 21st Century our pipe and tube is unrivaled.) Steel was the backbone of our railroads, our shipping industry, our automobile industry, and our food packaging industry. This book tells the story of the rise and the fall of the steel industry and its economic partners.
So much of what Brooke Stoddard describes has been part of my life and career for years. Visiting steel mills, watching the heats pour out of the mini-mill furnaces or the pressed steel feed through the continuous casters, I understood why the Carnegies and Rockefellers kept saying, “More!” “Bigger!” Steel is so hot, so bright, and so huge. It was easy to see how we built too much capacity. I also understand how America ended up with out-dated equipment and technology. After the war, we helped Europe and Japan recover. That included restoring their industrial might - but bigger factories with more modern technology.
Bob Dylan wrote a song back in the sixties, North Country Blues, about the death of a mining town up on the Great Lakes. He actually grew up in one of the communities there, so he really knew that story personally. I loved that song back then; little did I know I’d come to spend so much of my own career working those issues from the government side. First I represented State in shaping a policy deal with steel imports. I traveled to mills in the U.S., Japan, and Hungary. I negotiated 21 VRAs. And I grew to love the complexity of the steel industry and the people who make it. Stoddard talks about Lakshmi Mittal, now owner of the world’s largest steel producer, Mittal Steel. He based himself in London back in 2005, where his son had a crush on Nani! The plant in Trinidad and Tobago was built and operated by Mittal. So, when I was pregnant with Nani and negotiating with the T&T government, the mill they were advocating for was the Mittal mill. Minister Gordon gave me that lovely teddy bear that we still have!
Stoddard also dedicates pages to the final years of Bethlehem Steel, particularly Sparrows Point. I remember going to Sparrows Point. We watched the cold-rolled sheet come out of the rollers and onto the coil. Some men were working the stands and managing that process. Others stood around at the end and waited for a coil to come out before they did anything. The environment had a sluggish feel; they got paid, no matter what, so no hurry - and no big orders to rush through to make room for the next one. In talking to others, I’ve often used what I saw during that visit as an example of featherbedding.
In 2002, Wilbur Ross bought LTV and renamed it International Steel Group (ISG). Later, when Bethlehem, too, declared bankruptcy, Ross stepped in again and bought it, working out a deal with the unions to cut the numbers of positions required for certain tasks and to peg wages to productivity. Not until the third reference to Ross did it occur to me that he’s our current Secretary of Commerce! Yes, the one who falls asleep in meetings with Saudi royalty. The one who expressed surprise that anyone affected by COVID-19 would go to a food bank. “Why not just take out a personal loan?” Yes, that guy! Apparently he helped Trump save his casinos in Atlantic City back during a financial crisis, so the Cabinet is his reward.
A poetic ending to the book; it summarizes the shifts in the global steel industry and links those to the fate of Bethlehem Steel - not a surprise given that one of Stoddard’s chief sources is a history of the plant. Fittingly, the last sentences in this book speak of Sparrows Point. “Sparrows Point, where once iron flowed like water and men bent away from the sight of it, reverted again to a mere patch of land - home for birds, lizards, and bugs, its industrial work in the world finished. Sparrows Point, once the largest steel mill in the world, fell as silent as the marshland it was when Chester Arthur was president and Sioux Indians commanded the Great Plains.”
As you can tell, I love steel and I liked this book a lot!
August 28, 2017
I never thought much about steel, but I was transfixed with this book. Maybe it's because I knew so little about the alloy and the process needed to make it, or maybe it's how Stoddard presented the information but I could not stop reading.
**I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review**
**I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review**
August 20, 2015
I began reading to gain insight into the economic woes of America's industrial heartland. I finished with huge appreciation for steel, the material itself, and seeing echoes of the steel industry's missteps in almost every mature industry I can think of.
November 15, 2018
Great and simple almanac on steelmaking history
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews