A finalist for the Pencil/E. O. Wilson Literary Research Writing Award

The gripping story of the very most important overlooked commodity in the world–sand–and the key role it plays in our lives.

After water and air, sand may be the natural resource that people consume more than any other–even more than oil. Every concrete building and paved street on the planet, every screen and silicon chip, is manufactured out of sand. From Egypt’s pyramids towards the Hubble telescope, through the world’s tallest skyscraper to about The World in a Grain: THE STORYPLOT of Sand and exactly how It Changed Civilization the sidewalk below it, from Chartres’ stained-glass home windows to your iPhone, sand shelters us, empowers us, engages us, and inspires us. It’s the ingredient which makes possible our cities, our science, our lives–and our future.

And, incredibly, we’re jogging from it.

The World within a Grain is the compelling true story from the hugely important and diminishing natural resource that grows more essential every day, and of the individuals who mine it, sell it, build with it–and sometimes, even kill for it. It’s also a provocative examination of the critical human and environmental costs incurred by our dependence on sand, which includes received little public attention. Not all sand is established equal: A number of the least difficult sand to access may be the least useful. Award-winning journalist Vince Beiser delves deep into this globe, taking visitors on the journey throughout the world, from the United States to remote corners of India, China, and Dubai to explain why sand is so crucial to modern life. On the way, readers encounter world-changing innovators, island-building entrepreneurs, desert fighters, and murderous fine sand pirates. The effect is an amusing and eye-opening function, one that is usually both unpredicted and concerning, rippling with exciting detail and filled up with surprising characters.