The Substance of Civilization

Materials and Human History from the Stone Age to the Age of Silicon

By: Stephen L. Sass

Narrated by: John Haag

Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's Summary

The story of human civilization can be read most deeply in the materials we have found or created, used or abused. They have dictated how we build, eat, communicate, wage war, create art, travel, and worship. Some, such as stone, iron, and bronze, lend their names to the ages. Others, such as gold, silver, and diamond, contributed to the rise and fall of great empires. How would history have unfolded without glass, paper, steel, cement, or gunpowder?

The impulse to master the properties of our material world and to invent new substances has remained unchanged from the dawn of time; it has guided and shaped the course of history. Sass shows us how substances and civilizations have evolved together. In antiquity, iron was considered more precious than gold. The celluloid used in movie film had its origins in the search for a substitute for ivory billiard balls. The same clay used in the pottery of antiquity has its uses in today’s computer chips.

Moving from the Stone Age to the Age of Silicon, from the days of prehistoric survival to the cutting edge of nanotechnology, this fascinating and accessible book connects the worlds of minerals and molecules to the sweep of human history, and shows what materials will dominate the century ahead.

©1998, 2011 Stephen L. Sass (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Very enjoyable!

This book should be a mandatory reading for science class in highschool everywhere. Conveys exactly what the cover says it does.

Very interesting stuff

I enjoyed every chapter in this book.I learned Things that were really interesting and enjoyed every time it was played

Bit Advanced For Me In Places

This is a very interesting tour through the links between material science to the inventions and innovations that have been of huge significance to human societies.

I'm not a scientific person, more into my humanities, and to be honest quite a bit went over my head. Is it the limits of describing body centred cubic vs face centred cubic molecules using text rather than diagrams, or because I'm just a bit stupid? Genuinely not sure.

I ventured over to Wikipedia a couple of times to try and build my knowledge to better understand what I was hearing. It felt like one third of this book was description of chemistry at the atomic level, one third descriptions of materials science processes, and one third about inventions and the impact in the wider world. By the time we got to polymers and silicon, I was allowing the atomic stuff to just wash over me rather than properly trying to follow. Overall, I learned a lot, but a greater weight on that last third would have suited me better personally.

The narrator was OK, a bit idiosyncratic ("this new material had yuge potential for yumans") but generally good. I had him on 1.1 speed.

Eye opening a out the materials that shaped humans

Quite Geological, detailed earth science at times.
Lots of reference to Old Testament/Torah/monotheistic religious tales as well as classical civilisation myths and stories.
Overall its an interesting viewpoint on how humankinds innovation with natural materials pushed forwards society.
Who knew that ancient blacksmithing or glass making would be so engaging?!