Concrete Planet

This is the engrossing story of the world's most common man-made material - from ancient times to the present day. Concrete: We walk on it, drive on it, and many of us work within its walls. Yet, very few of us know what it is. We take it for granted, yet the story of its creation and development features a cast of fascinating characters and remarkable historical episodes. In a lively narrative filled with intriguing details, "Concrete Planet" describes how some of history's most famous personalities helped in the development and use of concrete - including King Herod, Emperor Hadrian, Thomas Edison, and Frank Lloyd Wright. It also examines evidence suggesting the discovery of concrete led directly to the Neolithic Revolution (8,000-5,000 BC) and the rise of the earliest civilizations, and how, much later, the Romans achieved extraordinarily high production standards - seen in structures such as the Coliseum and the Pantheon - which were lost for millennia after the Empire's fall.