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    Rust: The Longest War
    Rust: The Longest War
    Rust: The Longest War
    Audiobook13 hours

    Rust: The Longest War

    Written by Jonathan Waldman

    Narrated by Christopher Lane

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    A thrilling drama of man versus nature—detailing the fierce, ongoing fight against the mightiest and unlikeliest enemy: rust.

    It has been called “the great destroyer” and “the evil.” The Pentagon refers to it as “the pervasive menace.” It destroys cars, fells bridges, sinks ships, sparks house fires, and nearly brought down the Statue of Liberty. Rust costs America more than $400 billion per year—more than all other natural disasters combined.

    In Rust, journalist Jonathan Waldman travels from Key West, Florida, to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to meet the colorful and often reclusive people concerned with corrosion. He sneaks into an abandoned steelworks with a brave artist and nearly gets kicked out of Can School. Across the Arctic, he follows a massive high-tech robot, hunting for rust in the Alaska pipeline. On a Florida film set he meets the Defense Department’s rust ambassador, who reveals that the navy’s number one foe isn’t a foreign country but oxidation itself. At Home Depot’s mothership in Atlanta, he hunts unsuccessfully for rust products with the store’s rust products buyer—and then tracks down some snake-oil salesmen whose potions are not for sale at The Rust Store. Along the way, Waldman encounters flying pigs, Trekkies, decapitations, exploding Coke cans, rust boogers, and nerdy superheroes.

    The result is a fresh and often funny account of an overlooked engineering endeavor that is as compelling as it is grand, illuminating a hidden phenomenon that shapes the modern world. Rust affects everything from the design of our currency to the composition of our tap water, and it will determine the legacy we leave on this planet. This exploration of corrosion, and the incredible lengths we go to fight it, is narrative nonfiction at its very best—a fascinating and important subject, delivered with energy and wit.

    Editor's Note

    Science with flair…

    At heart, “Rust” captures the spirit of human ingenuity in the face of seemingly impossible odds in a duel with Mother Nature. Waldman’s work is a testament to how rust can’t corrode human genius and perseverance.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateMar 10, 2015
    ISBN9781501231346
    Author

    Jonathan Waldman

    Jonathan Waldman studied writing at Dartmouth and Boston University’s Knight Center for Science Journalism, and worked in print, radio, and TV before landing in books. His first book, Rust: The Longest War, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and winner of the Colorado Book Award. His writing has otherwise appeared in The New York Times and McSweeney’s. Visit him at JonnyWaldman.com or email him at JonnyWaldman@gmail.com.

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    Reviews for Rust

    4/5

    70 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Interesting read. The author provides an in-depth examination of the threat that corrosion is to the infrastructure and technology that undergirds our world. He accomplishes this by telling the multiple stories.* the restoration of the Statue of Liberty in preparation for its centennial anniversary* the battle of one bureaucrat to convince the Department of Defense to fund projects that saved tens of millions of taxpayer dollars* the incredible engineering that goes into devising coatings to protect aluminum food cans from corroding due to interaction with their contents* convincing engineering education programs to take corrosion seriously

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      The author appears to have a fetish for mustaches. Interesting book but a little too detailed...do I need to know what everyone is wearing and eating?
    • 3/5
      Pretty interesting book on the titular topic. It was eye opening how much rust and corrosion effects society, in a sneaky, under the radar way. The chapter on soda cans was fascinating. Environmental issues were not touched on at all which I felt was a missed opportunity. There is some science, but for the most part the author writes as a layman, and even displays a droll sense of humor, which was fun, Worthwhile read.
    • 4/5
      A reasonably riveting read. It ambles leisurely and changes focus from history to science onto art and engineering and it serves the subject matter well. Previous interest in rust not a prerequisite to enjoying this book.
    • 5/5
      Rust (corrosion) is a constant companion to all life on Earth. It seems to happen so slowly that we fool ourselves into thinking that we can deal with it later. This book covers corrosion across the range of human experience. It interesting due to how tremendous of an impact corrosion has on modern life. A lot of the book is detailed and filled with facts. It slowed my reading down as I tried to absorb and remember information.
    • 1/5
      What could have been a really interesting look at the engineering challenges posed by rust is mostly wasted by enormous focus on the people involved in the fight against rust, who seem committed and good at their jobs but really not meriting that kind of attention, which one of them even says to Waldman. He should have listened.