TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 301 American Iron, 1607-1900. By Robert Gordon. Baltimore:Johns Hop kins University Press, 1996. Pp. xi+341; illustrations, maps, fig ures, tables, appendixes, notes, bibliography, index. $49.95 (hard cover) . The iron and steel industry’s importance in the history of the American economy and the history of technology would not be dis puted by most observers. Indeed, the industry’s significance is dem onstrated by the attention of such scholars as Tom Misa, Geoffrey Tweedale, Jeanne McHugh, Elting Morison, Paul Tiffany, and Paul Paskoff. Moreover, in the past decade several books have traced the decline of American steel’s ability to compete in international mar kets after 1970. Nonetheless, a good general survey of the develop ment of the industry and its technology does not exist. We have only W. David Lewis’s brief overview, Iron and Steel in America (Greenville, Del.: Hagley Museum, 1976), or William Hogan’s monumental fivevolume Economic History ofthe Iron and SteelIndustry in the United States (Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath, 1971). Robert Gordon’s American Iron, 1607-1900 fills much of the need for an updated general survey of this industry and technology. The account stops in 1900 because Gordon has chosen to highlight iron, not steel, and by that time the triumph of steel over iron for most uses was clear. As a result, the book does not say much about later developments such as the opening of the Mesabi Range in Minne sota, or the expansion of steel making in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Chicago after 1870. Iron is Gordon’s focus, and he brings to bear his experience as professor of geophysics and applied mechanics at Yale, plus a longtime interest in the technical aspects of iron. Read ers should already know him through his coauthored book with Pat Malone, The Texture ofIndustry: An Archaeological View ofthe Industrial ization ofNorth America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994). In industrial archaeology circles, Gordon has carved a niche for him self by applying the analytical tools of metallurgy to understanding the historical development of iron making in this country. (Indeed, American Iron's final chapter on the industrial archaeology of iron identifies several publicly accessible sites that interpret the American iron industry.) This volume draws on all these elements, as well as on Gordon’s field work at sites of early iron making, his detailed reading of contemporary treatises, and archival research. The book is very well illustrated, thanks in large part to superb images, many of them from the Smithsonian Institution. The bibliography is also quite thorough. While it is organized along chronological lines, technical issues frame the book. The opening chapters examine iron as a material, the basic resources required to produce this most useful metal, and the primary technical processes. Along the way, Gordon provides comments on archaeometallurgy and the environmental impact of 302 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE iron making. The third chapter summarizes the growth of the Ameri can iron industry from 1720 through 1860. Although it is concise and focuses more on the Northeast (which Gordon knows best) than the South or Midwest, Gordon’s account is one of the better surveys of iron making in those years because he links the history to various sites. The book’s other chapters examine the operation of forges and furnaces, the conversion of pig iron into wrought iron via finery forges and puddling furnaces, the introduction of coal and coke blast furnaces, the slow development of crucible steel making before 1860, rolling and casting techniques, and the emergence of new steel making techniques after 1860. Gordon provides relatively clear technical descriptions of these processes, not all of which are cov ered in many sources. Throughout, he tries to connect individual sites to this history, although this proves harder to do in the later years of his period, for fewer structures and machines remain from the mid- to late nineteenth century. His explanations of some of the more obscure technical terms used in the industry are useful, as is the glossary; Gordon generally does not overutilize technicaljargon. Moreover, he emphasizes the skill required to produce iron in the period before scientific research began to...