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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
Good family listening on a long trip  2007-03-03
We borrowed the unabridged audiobook from our public library and listened to it on a long car trip. We were all riveted, including our 14-year-old son, because of the vivid characters, excellent reading, and compelling overarching idea of Nucor being nimbler, leaner, and smarter than "Big Steel." As loyal residents of the Rust Belt, we were familiar with the background and enjoyed the story of making money by recycling our rust.
Hot Metal Mania 2007-02-26
It's dangerous, it's exciting, and it's on the edge of technology and innovation. Nucor is opening an unproven "small" steel mill in Indiana, designing it as they go along, a project that covers an area equivalent to several football fields. Bringing the story to us is Richard Preston, an author who later delivered two non-fiction bestsellers about viruses, and "First Light," a book about the Mt. Palomar Oberservatory. In "American Steel" Preston delves immediately into the personalities of his hot metal men, profiling Ken Iverson, a hands-off CEO, and he visits the saloon to elicit opinions from foremen, managers, and steelworkers as readily as he does at the jobsite, on the casting platform, or around a negotiating table in Germany where the infernal casting machine is finally purchased. At roughly 2900 Degrees Fahrenheit, liquid steel gives off blackbody radiation that blisters skin, and will cause solid concrete, or human flesh, to explode on contact. Preston explores all of the angles in a riveting account that puts you within heating distance of the smelting process and at the exciting forefront of a tough business enterprise; adding in just a dash of physics to create an alloy of glistening stainless readability.
Did Not Hold My Attention  2002-04-15
I like this author, the Hot Zone was a marvelous book and the fiction version was not that bad. These were the only two reasons I picked up this book. The description of the book sounded somewhat interesting, but without the author I would have passed on it. In hindsight that was a mistake. The author really did try his best to make a business case study more aptly used in a college class then a mass publication book, interesting to read. He could not pull it off. The good flow of the book and the fact that it at least tries to keep you interested is due to the skill of author. Yes there is a lot of detail about this new form of making sheets of steel, but unless you are in the industry or a gluten for punishment I would stay away from the book.
Lessons in leading strategic change 2000-07-18
The overarching theme of Richard Preston's book, American Steel, is that of leading strategic change, a concept central to the discipline of managerial science. Another important theme of the book restates a concept central to the discipline of finance: the greater the risk, the greater the potential reward.From the moment Ken Iverson took the helm of the Nuclear Corporation of America in 1965, he was charged with leading strategic change. He "became president by default...no one else wanted the job...His job description was merely to stave off bankruptcy." Taking the path of least resistance, Iverson focused on the company's only profitable unit, the Vulcraft joist division. Instead of purchasing bar steel from other companies, Iverson decided to build a steel mill himself. This was a tremendous risk; as he put it, "We played 'Bet-the-Company'." This gets directly to the point mentioned above -- the greater the risk, the greater the potential reward. By employing untrained, unskilled workers at this new plant in South Carolina, Iverson increased the risk profile of the company even further. This move, however, combined with a generous bonus plan, engendered a sense of trust and responsibility in the workers after some time. Trust, as it turns out, is the currency of change -- and change is just what Iverson was trying to accomplish.
From begining to end, an excellent true story 2000-02-21
I had just recently started working at a steel plant when I discovered this book. I learned alot about the steel industry, from experiences that the author had first hand, to the politics. I couldn't put it down. What I enjoyed most about it was that it's all real. The things that are described, from the EAF, to the rolling mill, I relate to it every day. At any perspective, from the office to the grunt work, it keeps your mind going.
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