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"Interesting, affordable and readable.... Offers the reader an opportunity to delve further into each mineral's historical significance in an accessible way." -- Booklist 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, coral and jade. Entries are organized by name and considered for their influence in four categories: Industrial, Cultural, Commercial and Scientific.