The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization

by Vince Beiser

Overview

A finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award

The gripping story of the most important overlooked commodity in the world—sand—and the crucial role it plays in our lives.

After water and air, sand is the natural resource that we consume more than any other—even more than oil. Every concrete building and paved road on Earth, every computer screen and silicon chip, is made from sand. From Egypt's pyramids to the Hubble telescope, from the world's tallest skyscraper to the sidewalk below it, from Chartres' stained-glass windows to your iPhone, sand shelters us, empowers us, engages us, and inspires us. It's the ingredient that makes possible our cities, our science, our lives—and our future.

And, incredibly, we're running out of it.

The World in a Grain is the compelling true story of the hugely important and diminishing natural resource that grows more essential every day, and of the people who mine it, sell it, build with it—and sometimes, even kill for it. It's also a provocative examination of the serious human and environmental costs incurred by our dependence on sand, which has received little public attention. Not all sand is created equal: Some of the easiest sand to get to is the least useful. Award-winning journalist Vince Beiser delves deep into this world, taking readers on a journey across the globe, from the United States to remote corners of India, China, and Dubai to explain why sand is so crucial to modern life. Along the way, readers encounter world-changing innovators, island-building entrepreneurs, desert fighters, and murderous sand pirates. The result is an entertaining and eye-opening work, one that is both unexpected and involving, rippling with fascinating detail and filled with surprising characters.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399576423
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	08/07/2018
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Vince Beiser is an award-winning journalist. The World in a Grain, his first book, was a finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and a California Book Award. His work has appeared in Wired, Harper’s, The Atlantic, Mother Jones, and the New York Times, among other publications. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, he lives in Los Angeles.

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Chapter 1
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Excerpted from "The World in a Grain"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Vince Beiser.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

1 The Most Important Solid Substance on Earth 1

Part I How Sand Built the Twentieth Century's Industrialized World

2 The Skeleton of Cities 29

3 Paved with Good Intentions 49

4 The Thing That Lets Us See Everything 75

Part II How Sand Is Building the Twenty-First Century's Globalized, Digital World

5 High Tech, High Purity 101

6 Fracking Facilitator 119

7 Miami Beach-less 141

8 Man-Made Lands 169

9 Desert War 203

10 Concrete Conquers the World 217

11 Beyond Sand 235

Acknowledgments 259

Notes 263

Bibliography 283

Index 287

Editorial Reviews

05/21/2018
What does sand—the humble stuff of beaches and dunes—have to do with the making of the contemporary world? Quite a lot, actually, says journalist Beiser. He argues that sand, with its extraordinary range of properties, including durability and pliancy, is “the most important solid substance on earth... that makes modern life possible.” Sand is the key ingredient in concrete buildings and highways; in the form of glass, it is “the thing that lets us see everything” through windows, microscope lenses, eyeglasses, and smartphone screens. But due to the explosion in its uses and the increasing number and size of cities, sand is running out: the book is at its urgent best in chapters on the black market in sand and the sand mafias that brutally exercise control over resources in places like Raipur Khadar, a farming village south of New Delhi, whose ecosystem has been plundered by the demand for sand. The flip side of the story of modern life is, of course, the story of ecological devastation: Beiser moves from the denuded beaches of St. Vincent, in the Caribbean, to the replanted deserts of Inner Mongolia, showing the true cost of the “sand wars.” Breezily written and with insights on every page, this is an eye-opening look at a resource too often taken for granted. Agent: Lisa Bankoff, ICM. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

2018-05-07
A fresh history of "the most important solid substance on Earth, the literal foundation of modern civilization."Books on a single, familiar topic (salt, cod, etc.) have an eager audience, and readers will find this an entirely satisfying addition to the genre. In his first book, journalist Beiser, whose work has appeared in Wired, Mother Jones, and elsewhere, has done his homework, and he delivers often surprising information about sand's role from low tech to high (construction, glass, electronics) without neglecting the painful consequences of its skyrocketing production over the past century, which has made it a source of serious environmental damage. Next to air and water, humans use more sand (largely silica, silicon dioxide) than any material, mostly to make concrete for buildings and roads. Desert sand isn't suitable, writes the author, so "riverbeds and beaches around the world are being stripped bare of their precious grains. Farmlands and forests are being torn up. And people are being imprisoned, tortured, and murdered. All over sand." Of course, it takes sand to make glass, which was not cheap until after 1900, when machines put an army of glassmakers out of work, and bottles and picture windows became routine consumer products. Far less—but far more purified—sand becomes silicon chips and similar high-tech essentials. Beiser devotes the second half of the book to the process of moving sand from place to place. The iconic beaches we take for granted are often artificial creations, eroding steadily, supporting a massive, multibillion-dollar, government-subsidized industry to truck in sand. An area the size of Connecticut has been reclaimed from the sea for airports, homes, or luxury resorts by vacuuming sand from the sea bottom or importing it, often illegally, from the beaches and land of poor countries.A successful if disturbing argument that there is more to sand than meets the eye.

Kirkus Reviews

[An] impassioned and alarming report on sand.... In Beiser's artful telling, the planet is caught up in a vicious, sand-fueled cycle.” —Washington Post

“Beiser peppers research with first-person interviews in an engaging and nuanced introduction to the ways sand has shaped the world.... stunning.” —NPR

“Beiser’s eye-opening study clarifies the science and the huge role of sand in heavy and high-tech industry. Perhaps most compelling is his exposé of sand mining, which obliterates islands, destroys coral reefs and marine biodiversity, and threatens livelihoods. A powerful lens on an under-reported environmental crisis.” —Nature

“Whether in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, or India, [Beiser] exhibits a flare for detailing the human drama through prose.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

“I thought I knew the basics of sustainability, but this lucid, eye-opening book made me feel like a dolt in the best possible aha-moment way: I'd simply never registered how much of the contemporary world—our concrete and glass buildings and asphalt roads and silicone-based digital devices and so much more—is entirely, voraciously sand-dependent. And the looming global sand crisis: who knew?” —Kurt Andersen, author of Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History

“A fresh history of 'the most important solid substance on Earth, the literal foundation of modern civilization.' Books on a single, familiar topic (salt, cod, etc.) have an eager audience, and readers will find this an entirely satisfying addition to the genre.” —Kirkus Reviews

“The book is at its urgent best in chapters on the black market in sand and the sand mafias that brutally exercise control over resources... Breezily written and with insights on every page, this is an eye-opening look at a resource too often taken for granted.” —Publishers Weekly

“A rich study of one of the world's most abundant natural resources: sand. With a balance of statistics, science, history, on-the-scene reporting and some healthy environmental skepticism, The World in a Grain highlights the ways this ubiquitous global commodity has been essential to human development and advancement.” —Shelf Awareness

“The World in a Grain is nothing less than one of the best reporters working today unpacking the literal foundations of civilization. Everything we are, everywhere we live, is built on or out of sand, and Vince Beiser tells the best story of where that sand comes from, who moves it, and what they build from it. It's a whole new way of seeing the world.” —Adam Rogers, author of Proof: The Science of Booze

“Modern life, as Vince Beiser compellingly explains, is literally made of sand. Yet we have been so profligate with this seemingly inexhaustible resource that for many uses in many parts of the world we are running out. The World in a Grain is a chronicle of innovation and greed and heedless waste—in brief, the story of civilization.” —David Owen, author of Where the Water Goes

“A riveting, wonderfully written investigation into the many kinds of castles the world has built out of sand. You'll find something new, and something fascinating, on every page. Perhaps even in every paragraph.” —Nicholas Thompson, author of The Hawk and the Dove

“Sand shortage? Black market in sand? Secret sand heists? Who knew? I certainly didn’t before reading this lively and eye-opening book about a material I’d always assumed almost infinite. Vince Beiser shows, with great skill, that this key component of our fragile, over-consuming planet we need to better understand, conserve and protect.” —Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost and Bury the Chains

From the Publisher

For those who sweep it off the sidewalk or pour it out of their shoes, sand may not seem like a remarkable substance—until they listen to journalist Beiser’s account of its importance in our modern world. With narrator Will Damron’s even voice as our guide, Beiser explains how the raw material of glass, concrete, roads, and vacation resorts has encouraged sand mining on a massive and destructive scale. He reports from several U.S. locations and makes stops in China, India (home of a murderous “sand mafia”), and Palm Jumeirah (an artificial island of sand in Dubai), with Damron handling all of the dialogue without accents or adornment. This may not be one to listen to on the beach. D.B. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2018 - AudioFile

For those who sweep it off the sidewalk or pour it out of their shoes, sand may not seem like a remarkable substance—until they listen to journalist Beiser’s account of its importance in our modern world. With narrator Will Damron’s even voice as our guide, Beiser explains how the raw material of glass, concrete, roads, and vacation resorts has encouraged sand mining on a massive and destructive scale. He reports from several U.S. locations and makes stops in China, India (home of a murderous “sand mafia”), and Palm Jumeirah (an artificial island of sand in Dubai), with Damron handling all of the dialogue without accents or adornment. This may not be one to listen to on the beach. D.B. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2018 - AudioFile