Synopsis
A chronicle of the efforts of America's ninth largest steel company to build a new steel plant in the Midwest's Rust Belt presents true-life characters and suspense in its exploration of the American steel industry.

From the Author
HOW GOD WROTE THE ENDING OF AMERICAN STEEL
The main character in AMERICAN STEEL is a giant figure in business, Ken Iverson, the chairman of Nucor Corporation. The book is nonfiction. It tells the true story of how Iverson handed a third of a billion dollars to a group of young people, who had no previous experience in steel or even in business, and told them to build the world’s most advanced steel mill, six times more efficient than any steel mill in Japan. It was a dangerous assignment for these guys. I followed the whole thing. As I was finishing up the book, there was a terrible accident. They dropped a 100-ton ladle of molten steel. It exploded when it hit the ground, throwing basketball-sized blobs of molten steel hundreds of feet in the air. This blew off the building’s roof and walls -- a building the size of a cathedral. One man died, drenched with liquid steel, which fried the skin off his body. Human skin actually explodes when it’s splashed with liquid steel. I had met him. To be a journalist and lose someone you’ve interviewed is a wrenching experience. In the investigation that followed the accident, it was determined that if the ladle had been dropped just five seconds earlier, almost all of the characters in my real-life book would probably have died. And AMERICAN STEEL would have ended as a tragedy. Instead, it’s a story of triumph. The guys survived the accident, went on and succeeded, and their steel mill today is a wonder of American ingenuity. When you write nonfiction, you don’t have control over the story. In this case, God wrote the ending of my book, since if the ladle had been dropped five seconds earlier, my heroes would have been fried in a pool of steel. I welcome e-mail and try to answer it. My other books are THE HOT ZONE, AMERICAN STEEL, and FIRST LIGHT. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
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4.9 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating reading. Needs to be made into a movie., 8 Jul 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: American Steel (Paperback)

A true story about a bunch of americans with a dream and a lot of grit. They pulled off one of the greatest stories in industrial America. This book was written in 1989-90. Not long ago, and the people who were there are still alive and working in the industry today. The American dream is still alive if you are bold enough to reach out and grasp it.

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4.0 out of 5 stars A company bent on beating Japan at making steel, 8 Mar 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: American Steel (Paperback)

Never in my wildest dreams would I expect to root for a steel factory in west-central Indiana to save American industry, but you have to read "American Steel" to believe it. Nucor Corporation has a wild idea about building a plant in tiny Crawfordsville, Indiana, and beat Big Steel and Japan at the same time with non-union labor. Though the writing style is fairly simple the story itself is fabulous and I wouldn't believe it if I didn't know it was true.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Ambishes Story of Resurrection, 14 Feb 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: American Steel (Paperback)

American Steel is a comeback story of the American Steel Industry. A little less than half a million american steel workers lost their jobs in the 70's and 80's to imported steel. This book is about their story of how they put their heads together and purchased and created a machine which would make them the most competitive steel workers in the world. This book takes the reader into the minds of the hot metal men and through every step of their ambishes story of resurrection.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A book that says it all
My mother never has understood how I, of all people, ended up being so interested in business.

My business has nothing to do with steel, but this is the book I bought her to... Read more

Published on 16 Jul 1998

5.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining book on steel? YES!!!
I bought this book only because I like Richard Preston's work. Frankly, my interest in steel and the steel industry (metal in general, for that matter) is nil -- but I just had... Read more

Published on 7 Jul 1998

5.0 out of 5 stars I wish there were an "11"
This is a great book. It is what "Soul of a New Machine" should have been. Brilliant. Agree? Good for you. Disagree? Bite me. Read more

Published on 22 Jul 1997

5.0 out of 5 stars A surprisingly documentary on a modern steelmaking
Richard Preston presents a rather thorough documentary of the start of a small steel mill in Indiana. Read more

Published on 30 April 1997

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