Review: Precious Metal: German Steel, Modernity, and Ecology

Book Review| March 01 2024 Review: Precious Metal: German Steel, Modernity, and Ecology Peter H. Christensen Precious Metal: German Steel, Modernity, and Ecology University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2022, 236 pp. , 83 b/w illus. 99. 95 (cloth), ISBN 9780271092317 Vyta Pivo Vyta Pivo University of Michigan Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (2024) 83 (1): 107–108. https: //doi. org/10. 1525/jsah. 2024. 83. 1. 107 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures Review: Precious Metal: German Steel, Modernity, and Ecology. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 1 March 2024; 83 (1): 107–108. doi: https: //doi. org/10. 1525/jsah. 2024. 83. 1. 107 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of the Society of Architectural Historians Search The cover image features a tall, dark, and sturdy form. Its many bolts secure seams together, leaving no doubt that the material in focus is metal. The expansive structure is a bridge in the Ruhr Valley, captured by photographer Albert Renger-Patzsch in 1928. It encapsulates the unwavering zeal that geologists, industrialists, and architects had for the potential of iron and steel, and the modern worlds they promised. Peter H. Christensen documents the iron and steel industries at different scales in Precious Metal: German Steel, Modernity, and Ecology. In doing so, he contributes to a growing body of scholarship focused on the histories of specific materials and commodities, produced by a group that includes Sidney W. Mintz (sugar), Sven Beckert (cotton), and Adrian Forty (concrete), among many others. Christensen's work connects the field of architectural history to a broader context encompassing ecology, politics, business, and labor history. The result is. . . You do not currently have access to this content.