The Alchemy of Air

A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler

By: Thomas Hager

Narrated by: Adam Verner

Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

A sweeping history of tragic genius, cutting-edge science, and the discovery that changed billions of lives - including your own.

At the dawn of the 20th century, humanity was facing global disaster. Mass starvation, long predicted for the fast-growing population, was about to become a reality. A call went out to the world's scientists to find a solution. This is the story of the two enormously gifted, fatally flawed men who found it: the brilliant, self-important Fritz Haber and the reclusive, alcoholic Carl Bosch.

Together they discovered a way to make bread out of air, built city-sized factories, controlled world markets, and saved millions of lives. Their invention continues to feed us today; without it, more than two billion people would starve.

But their epochal triumph came at a price we are still paying. The Haber-Bosch process was also used to make the gunpowder and high explosives that killed millions during the two world wars. Both men were vilified during their lives; both, disillusioned and disgraced, died tragically. Today we face the other unintended consequences of their discovery - massive nitrogen pollution and a growing pandemic of obesity.

The Alchemy of Air is the extraordinary, previously untold story of two master scientists who saved the world only to lose everything and of the unforseen results of a discovery that continue to shape our lives in the most fundamental and dramatic of ways.

©2008 Thomas Hager (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"This scientific adventure spans two world wars and every cell in your body." ( Discover magazine)

“I know of few other books that provide the general reader with a better portrait of chemistry as the most useful of sciences, and I intend to recommend it to scientists and non-scientists alike.” ( The Journal of Chemical Education)

History &/or Science buff? This ones for you!

Fantastic history of the science & politics revolving around fixed nitrogen. Sound boring? You might be surprised at how this has effected all our lives, in peace and war.

Excellent book.

Overall good, but…

What a strangely philosemetic book, I think the word jew appears more than nitrogen. The semite fluffing is cranked up to 10. As an atheist jew I find it almost creepy, the reverence to that aspect of the man is without reason. Author may be of the tribe himself. The rest of the book ran along pretty well. Very interesting, I had to run it at 1.3-1.4 speed, reader was quite slow. There was a fair amount of recap/overlap from chapter to chapter, I think they could have removed about 20 min of that.

Fascinating listen

I work in the agriculture industry and found this explanation both helpful and engaging. The scientific concepts were explained well.

Great

A deep dive into two titans of history. Reasonable overview of Haber and Bosch. Recommended

Great Book Thoroughly Researched

This is one of the best audio books I have listened to in a long time, and I listen lots. It is the story of Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, and there collaboration on the Haber-Bosch process for creating fixed nitrogen using ultra high pressure chemistry in specially engineered Haber-Bosch machines. Haber was the scientist who discovered the process for making ammonia from nitrogen, hydrogen, and various catalysts while heating them under very high pressures. Bosch is the one who solved the practical engineering difficulties and build the original Haber-Bosch machines for the German chemical giant BASF. Both men are fascinating. Haber was the extrovert, the Jew who for social purposes converted to Christianity (which is an important element in the story once Hitler came to power), the scientist who signed the agreement with BASF and then went on to direct the famed Kaiser Wilhelm institute during WWI and thereafter, even spearheading poison gas efforts. Bosch was the metallurgist and mechanic who took Haber's process and brought it to large scale production. Literally, 5/7 of the world's population would not now be alive if it had not been for the process, which made fixed nitrogen fertilizers cheap and widely available, replacing the old guano or naturally occurring Chile nitrates as the fertilizer of choice around the world. The story does not end with nitrogen chemistry, however. Bosch rose to head BASF, and later I. G. Farben, the German chemical giant, and pursued synthetic gasoline as his next great project.

The book explains the technical processes, which I found fascinating, the history of nitrate fertilizers--far more interesting than you can imagine--and German history as they impinged on the lives of Haber and Bosch. Both men display greatness, even hubris, and essential flaws. Their reactions to the Hitler regime are their personal crucibles, but their lives are fascinating in what they managed to accomplish. A really great audio book even though the subject seems unlikely.

I cannot say the same for the quality of the performance. It is adequate, but uninspired.Several words are annoyingly mispronounced--like the word "solder," for example, pronounced with a long o--a sure sign that the reader was unfamiliar with the subject--but don't let this criticism dissuade you from listening to this fine book. It's a 3-star performance of a 5-star book.

Riveting

Although only a third of the way through this book I wanted to add my review to the mix since there are currently only 2 reviews. I vociferously disagree with the claim that the bird dung content was boring. The details included in the narrative illustrate the basis for the value of nitrogen as a fertilizer and therefore the justification for searching to create a synthetic product. I am so far riveted by this book. Will update my review after completing the read.

A shorter title than the book's

My favorite niche in audible books seems to be books that examine technical advances and the sociological theatre that surrounds the development. In this regard, this is a great, fascinating book, more interesting than I anticipated. The development of agricultural additives might not sound thrilling, but the history of how Europeans and Americans cultivated their food is really wrapped up in a wide range of influences - people at their best, and at their worst. Nonfiction lovers should really like this one.

How to feed 7 billion people

Sufficient food for all of us can not be grown using naturally occuring fertilizers and/or nitrates. Enter two geniuses who successfully thunk up a process for creating unlimited nitrates from the unlimited nitrogen in the air. WahLah! Today we all eat well (except for those in a society where corruption is the rule).

These two German geniuses did it to make money, a lot of money (feeding the masses was the by-product, not their motivation). They succeeded in mastering the technology and exporting the technology to the globe inspite of despot governments in Germany (Think WWI and WWII and before).

The importance of this miracle can not be overstated. One interesting application was that President Nixon's initial visit to China was followed by China importing this technology to feed its masses.

Any student of modern European history should consider this book a must!


Cecil R. Williams

Excellent

Excellent. I couldn't stop listening. One of the most enjoyable productions I've encountered since downloading Audible. I look forward to enjoying Thomas Hager other works.

The untold history of chemical weapons

Where does The Alchemy of Air rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Top listens!

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Alchemy of Air?

the British tested chemical weapons and killed more of their own men than the "enemy."

Which scene was your favorite?

The relationship between Fritz Haber and Einstein and how they respond to German antisemitism. Haber totally renounced his Jewish religion.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It makes me cry to know of man's inhumanity to man and how justified we all become about literally killing the other side. As we all know, WWI was a horror and not the Great War but the beginning of using "technology" to destroy the enemy. Most soldiers had NO idea what they were dying for, and really neither did the leaders.

Any additional comments?

Maybe if we studied more real history we wouldn't be so doomed to repeat it. We study war with events that instill nationality and prowar sentiment. In schools, history is military history and only the "battles" the US won.