Fifty Minerals that Changed the Course of History

by Eric Chaline

Praise for "Fifty Animals that Changed the Course of History"
"It's the sort of book that has you saying 'Wow, listen to this...' and 'Did you know...' to companions over and over."
--The Globe and Mail

"Fifty Minerals that Changed the Course of History" is a beautifully presented guide to the minerals that have had the greatest impact on human civilization. These are the materials used from the Stone Age to the First and Second Industrial Revolutions to the Nuclear Age and include metals, ores, alloys, salts, rocks, sodium, mercury, steel and uranium. The book also includes minerals used as currency, as jewelry and as lay and religious ornamentation when combined with gem minerals like diamonds, amber, coral, and jade.

Entries are organized by name and considered for their influence in four categories: Industrial, Cultural, Commercial and Scientific. More than 200 elegant drawings, photographs, paintings and excerpts from literature highlight the concise text.

Examples of the fifty minerals are: Diamonds: Did a necklace ordered by Louis XV precipitate the French Revolution? Sulphur: The biblical brimstone now used in organic farming. Clay: The oldest ceramic object is not a cooking pot or drinking bowl, but a statuette. Arsenic: Was Napoleon murdered while imprisoned on the island of St. Helena? Coal: The Romans invented the first central heating system. Saltpeter: China's fourth "Great Invention" was perhaps not so great after all. Salt: Once used as currency, we give it little thought today. Jade: The Chinese fabric of "pajamas for eternity."

Ubiquitous or rare, the minerals described in "Fifty Minerals that Changed the Course of History" have been fundamental to human progress, for good or evil. Many are familiar--the aluminum can we drink from, the car we drive, the jewelry we wear. They can be poisons, medicines or weapons, but wherever found and however used, their importance can be easily overlooked. This attractive reference gives us fascinating insight into our undeniable dependence on minerals.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Science, Reference, Nature, Geology, 21st Century

224 pages, Hardcover

Published July 19, 2012

About the author

Author, journalist and editor, winner of the Lord Aberdare Prize, 2018

Reviews

[William Bibliomane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, half of the items listed in this book aren't technically minerals, the organization doesn't make any sense (based of Latin names, except where it isn't or they are wrong), and the contents are far more about the history and far less about what the minerals are and how they were discovered or why they are important. To add further insult, a number of likely candidates are overlooked. Just not worth the price of admission or the lackadaisical quality of information provided.

Full review here.

[Josée Lepire · Rating 2 out of 5]

J'avais certaines attentes au niveau de ce livre, et j'avoue avoir été déçue. Bien sûr, le format est plutôt léger.
Le traitement de l'impact des minéraux est assez anecdotique, et l'ordre d'entrée des minéraux est basé sur l'ordre alphabétique du nom en... ben la langue dépend du minéral. Il y a une base de structure similaire au début de chaque article, mais pour le reste, le choix de ce qui est raconté est plutôt aléatoire. Avec la brièveté du livre, il est évident qu'il fallait faire des choix, mais ceux-ci sont parfois étranges et l'impact final du minéral sur le courant de l'histoire n'est pas toujours bien défini ou évident. On me dira que le traitement de chaque éléments chimique dans The Elements était aussi anecdotique, mais que j'ai bien aimé le livre. Or, il se dégage de The Elements un sentiment de rigueur scientifique, tandis que ce n'est pas le cas ici, le tout semblant davantage être choisi au gré de l'humeur de l'auteur. De plus, j'ai trouvé que l'humour tombait plus souvent à plat qu'autre chose.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Toen ik dit boek op het Boekenfestijn zag liggen, in december 2014, was ik aangetrokken door de titel. Op zich is het altijd leuk om dergelijke boeken in huis te hebben - al ga ik er niet actief naar op zoek -, zonder dat je specifieke, academische werken moet raadplegen. Na het lezen van dit overzicht moet ik toegeven dat ik me heb laten vangen. Maar goed, als je niet thuis bent in de materie... Je kunt namelijk niet alles weten.

Van diamant over barnsteen tot zink en alles daartussen, ook koper, kwik, goud, gips, kalium, fosfor, lei, lood, en meer.

Het positieve aan dit boek is, dat je over 50 mineralen (en hier begint de miserie al, want niet alle besproken elementen zijn mineralen) wat beknopte info meekrijgt: de context (cultureel, industrieel, wetenschappelijk, commercieel), wat historische achtergrond, samenstelling, enz. Het geheel wordt opgeleukt met foto's en tekeningen/schilderijen.

Het negatieve (of minder positieve) betreft een aantal zaken:
- niet alle elementen zijn mineralen, maar dat vind ik geen probleem. De titel blijft wel misleidend, uiteraard.
- de elementen zijn niet alfabetisch opgelijst, althans niet op de vertaalde benaming. Wel op hun originele naam, maar dan nog: Latijn? Grieks? Veel info wordt er niet meegegeven op dat vlak. En bepaalde benamingen zijn dan nog verkeerd ook, aldus andere reviews.
- de historische achtergrond is vaak ok (middels voorbeelden van producten en gebruiken), maar zeer beknopt en niet altijd relevant. Het is dan ook geen academisch werk, eerder een bundeling voor de "gewone" burger.
- ...

En zo vraag je je dan af: Waarom al die moeite doen, als de geleverde info onvolledig en/of onjuist is? Zelfs als je een toegankelijk werk wilt schrijven, zorg er tenminste voor dat hetgeen je schrijft over de hele lijn correct is.

Een heel duidelijke en onderbouwde recensie, weliswaar in het Engels, kun je hier vinden, geschreven door William Bibliomane.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This reminded me of those Golden Field Guides to Astronomy, Rocks & Minerals, etc. that I used to browse through for hours when I was a kid. However, there were so many editing errors and just plain mistakes that I'd use this book simply as a springboard into further exploration of the topic using other books. Since when is London on the North Sea? There were so many references to global warming that I lost track. I do have to say that there were no gratuitous "right wing", "tea party", "Republican" or "Bush" references which I am finding in the great majority of the non-fiction books I have read over the past couple of years. It's getting tedious.

I'm not sure exactly what the author's definition of a "mineral" is as it by no means matches mine. Nacre and Amber are not minerals. Neither is Petroleum or Asphalt, let alone Gold, Silver, Copper, Uranium, Mercury, Radium or Titanium.

Again, while this is interesting to browse through, please do fact check against other sources as there are many errors throughout. Two stars instead of one because I liked the binding and typeset.

[laura]

je vais m’abstenir de noter ce livre parce que je n’ai pas vraiment apprécié la lecture (qui m’a quand même
pris un an…). pas parce qu’il est mauvais, mais tout simplement parce que ce n’était pas un livre pour moi

je pense quand même que c’est un bon livre qui plaira au bon public. il est truffé de faits historiques très intéressants. j’ai bien aimé les quelques ajouts personnels de l’auteur sur ses propres expériences de vie
en revanche, je ne pense pas qu’il y ait un réel ordre de présentation (principalement alphabétique?) et vu la quantité d’informations donnée, ça peut perdre un peu. les quelques erreurs typographiques laissent à désirer aussi, surtout quand elles se retrouvent aussi proches les unes des autres
je ne l’aurais probablement pas acheté si j’avais lu les revues présentes ici avant je pense

(lu en français)

[Care · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of interesting history, but the editing was absolutely terrible! Typos, incorrect facts, and poor grammar ran rampant through the book. Not sure how it all slipped under the radar. I'd be interested to read "50 animals" and "50 plants" as well, but this was really fun and refreshing.

[Chels S · Rating 4 out of 5]

50 ROCKS that changed History (hahahahahahahahaha)

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of interesting tidbits, this book covers everything from diamonds (Adamas) to zinc (Zink). It's alphabetized by the secondary name, which isn't always similar to the English, and there's no explanation of the non-English name (German? Latin?). One peeve of mine is the lack of explanation of the illustrations; the book gives only the copyright holder if the caption doesn't give the artist or origin. Included are gold, silver, platinum, copper, tin, bronze and iron; also alabaster, chalk, salt, slate, mercury & marble along with many others. A good introduction to the materials covered.
Diamonds (Adamas), Copper (Aes cyprium), Bronze (Aes brundisium), alabaster (Alabastrum), alum (Alamen), Aluminum (aluminum), asbestos (Amiantos), amber (Anbar), silver (Argentum), clay (Argilla), arsenic (Arsenicum), asphalt (Asphaltos), gold (Aurum), chalk (Calx), coal (Carbo carbonis), coral (Corallium), ivory (Eburneus), slate (Esclate), iron (Ferreus), kaolin (Gaoling) porcelain clay, graphite (Graphit), gypsum (Gypsatus), mercury (Hydrargyrum), potassium (Kalium), marble (Marmor), nacre (Nakara), natron (Natrium), obsidian (Obsidianus), ocher (Ochra), petroleum (Petroleum), phosphorus (Phosphorus), platinum (Platinum), lead (Plumbum), plutonium (Plutonium), pumice (Pumiceus), quartz (Quartzeus), radium (Radius), sand (Sabulum), saltpeter (Sal petrae), salt (Salio), flint (Silex), steel (Stahl), tin (Stannum), sulfur (Sulphur), talc (Talq), titanium (Titanium), uranium (Uranium), jade (Venifica), tungsten (Wulfram), zinc (Zink).
I liked his previous 2 books better: Fifty Plants, and Fifty Animals that changed the course of history.

[Am Y · Rating 1 out of 5]

Whatever credibility this book held totally diminished when I came across the first spelling error quite near the beginning. The author wrote "break pads" (instead of "brake pads"). There were more errors to come.

And one chapter talked about Napoleon "most likely" dying of arsenic poisoning. This theory was debunked 6 years ago, with scientists concluding, after conducting extensive tests, that Napoleon's most probable cause of death was stomach cancer. Some books have even been published in recent years, talking about how and why arsenic poisoning was NOT likely to have been his cause of death, all backed with scientific evidence. This book was published just last year in 2012, so how could the author not have known this, unless he didn't do sufficient research first?

Also, the chapter on diamonds mentions nothing about De Beers. How can you write about diamonds without mentioning De Beers, especially if one of the aspects you're writing about is the commercial and cultural history of this mineral?

I was also put off by the extensive reference to biblical quotes throughout the book. Did the author only consider one source in his research (or lack thereof)?

I would strongly advise anyone looking to reference this book for facts and other knowledge or info, to be extremely wary.

[Fred Latil]

Lorsque j'ai découvert l'édition française de ce livre, tout a fait par hasard lors de la visite du Musée de Préhistoire que Quinson (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France) j'étais emballé. Hélas, mon enthousiasme devait retomber bien vite, alors que j'étais déjà en train d'en vanter les mérites sur une revue. En effet, j'ai d'abord constaté des approximations, des coupures de mots totalement anarchiques et fautives, des erreurs de traduction (par exemple traduire "rougth" par "rugueux" lorsqu'il aurait fallu le traduire par "brut"…
J'aime aller au bout des choses, pensant que la traductrice et l'éditeur (A***) n'avaient pas été à la hauteur, j'ai voulu me référer à l'édition originale. Je l'ai même commandée, avant d'annuler ma commande après avoir vu les commentaires laissés ici par mes prédécesseurs.
Je ne lirai donc pas l'édition première, mes lecteurs ne seront pas inciter à acheter ce livre, mais plutôt à éviter l'achat. Quel dommage ! d'autres ouvrages parmi ces "50…", par exemple ceux édités (en français) chez D***, étaient si bien faits, si riches.
En conclusion, un livre sur ce même sujet reste à écrire !

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was some interesting stuff in here, but the author lost a lot of credibility by including several points that are, from a historical perspective, utter nonsense. No, it isn't "likely" that Napoleon was accidentally poisoned by his arsenic green wallpaper, and the average lifespan wasn't really 40 at any point in recorded history. The Napoleon thing is long since discredited, and even the text here makes it seem like a longshot- there was a lot of arsenic floating around before we got serious about food safety. And citing 40 as an average lifespan totally ignores the high infant and child mortality rates. A man who survived to adulthood, and a woman who survived childbirth, wouldn't be surprised to see 60.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

PM read-aloud. We took this really slow, reading only a couple entries a week. We liked it well enough , but it was not quite what we wanted it to be; it felt poorly organized (alphabetically, roughly, which is a weird way to classify both minerals and history), the science was lighter than it needed to be, and some of the history didn't feel reliable--it wasn't well- sourced. Also it stretched the definition of mineral near to breaking, including entries on important rocks like flint and compounds like bronze. I can overlook that as a failing of needing the catchy title, but it would more accurately be called "Fifty Earth Materials that Have Been Important to Human Civilization" but yeah, that isn't very snappy. Still, it was a good introduction. Three stars.

[Sandra Biermann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting facts but not impressed with the historical link to some minerals - seemed a stretch and his personal bias and philosophy seemed out of place for this topic. A good start but could have been soooo much better.

[Abraham Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

nice to read,but you wouldn't want to keep it for yourself in my opinion.

[Monique De klonia · Rating 3 out of 5]

leuk om te lezen maar ik vraag me af of alles klopt. ik ben een paar dubieuze dingen tegengekomen en ben wat wantrouwend geworden voor de rest

[Dirk · Rating 2 out of 5]

The idea is great. And I loved the examples and histories. However, it needs a far more systematic, encyclopedic approach on matters as qualities of the material, production, etc

[Dna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun to read, fun to learn stuff.

[Shana]

Good flip through book, not as deep or interesting as could be

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as part of son's science curriculum.