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Title: Plastic: The Making of a Synthetic Century by Stephen Fenichell ISBN: 0887307329 Publisher: HarperBusiness Pub. Date: 1996 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4.67

Rating: 4
Summary: A Fun and Enlightening read
Comment: I came across this book by accident,while travelling. The colorful cover caught my eye, but soon after reading a few chapters I was hooked. It's the perfect beach book. Plastic is now a word that can conjure the idea of "cheap" or "fake" but it was not always so. Fenichell starts us at the beginning of the discovery of the various materials like man-made rubber and other things we now take for granted, and tells the story of each innovation as though we are standing there in the lab and the inventor yells "Eureka!" Stories about the inventors range from funny (you know Goodyear is going to eventually succeed because of his famous name, but he has many misadventures before success arrives) to poignant, in the stories where someone desperately wants to achieve fame and fortune but their "plastic" product fails to catch on and their name disappears into oblivion.
My only criticism is the chapter on my grandfather, who plays a prominent role in the history of plastic. Fenichell simplifies and distorts some of the facts about my grandfather's company, but I forgive him in that it makes the reading light and entertaining in the end (well, a couple of chapters get bogged down by technical explanations of certain chemical processes). This is a book for anyone interested in American history, sociology,and pop psychology: plastics of all kinds make up an inextricable part of every aspect of our daily lives.

Rating: 5
Summary: I have one word for you...
Comment: This is a scholarly, tongue in cheek, thoroughly enjoyable peon to the most despicably of substances. Histories of science and industry could learn much from Mr. Fenichill's pleasing blend of knowledge and humor. This is one of my favorite books.

Rating: 5
Summary: Superb history of plastic
Comment: Ever wonder about where things come from, how did they discover nylon, rayon, bakelite, tupperware, saran wrap? This book has the answers. Very readable.

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Title: American Plastic: A Cultural History by Jeffrey L. Meikle ISBN: 0813522358 Publisher: Rutgers University Press Pub. Date: 1997 List Price(USD): $24.00