Rust: The Longest War

Environmental journalist Waldman offers a lively collection of musings on the history of humans’ age-old battle with corrosion, telling a story as much about professional specialization as about materials science. He focuses less on the technicalities of combatting this ubiquitous Industrial Age enemy than on the individuals who find their joys and livelihoods in something many of us consider below our notice. Waldman inserts himself into the worlds of those who are passionate about rust: on an adventure with an ever-trespassing photographer in the abandoned Bethlehem Steel Works, on the set of a Pentagon training video featuring actor LeVar Burton and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense’s “corrosion czar,” talking to the introverted and underappreciated men who attend the annual gathering of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (and the salespeople who make their living selling anticorrosion paints), and locking horns with a journalist-fearing members of the metal-packaging Ball Company while sneaking into their corporate Can School (devoted to canning). It’s a detailed, fun read with a valuable reminder that every seemingly irrelevant item we take for granted each day is front and center for someone else. [em](Mar.) [/em]