Kyle Harrison
to-read
American Steel
American Steel: Hot Metal Men and the Resurrection of the Rust Belt
- Author
- Richard Preston
- Published
- 1991
- Pages
- 278
- Recommended
- Once
Why it’s on the list: Preston followed Nucor’s Crawfordsville gamble — the first thin-slab continuous caster, a technology nobody had made work at scale — and the minimill culture that bet the company on it. The industry answer for steel, and one of the best books on an incumbent being beaten by a process change.
Where I heard about it
- @WillManidis’s thread — listed as “American Steel by Richard Preston” in the replies to his question “what is the single best book you can read that will explain an entire industry?” in the thread, June 2025. The full list of replies lives on what is the single best book… (tweet).
Connections
- Manufacturing — the industry.
- Technological Innovation — a single process innovation reordering a mature sector.
- Company Building — Nucor’s flat structure and pay system as the thing that let it take the risk.
- what is the single best book… (tweet) — the thread this recommendation came from.