Steel has‎,‎ over centuries‎,‎ played a crucial role in shaping our material‎,‎ and in particular‎,‎ urban landscapes‎.‎ This books undertakes a cultural and ecological history of the material‎,‎ examining the relationship between steel and design at a micro and macro level ‎- in terms of both what it has been used to design and how it has functioned as a ‎'‎world‎-making force‎'‎‎.‎ The research for the book is informed by diverse sources including industry journals‎,‎ contemporary accounts and technical literature ‎- all framed by rich‎,‎ early accounts of iron and steel making from the middle ages to the opening of the industrial age‎,‎ and most notably‎,‎ the crucial works of Vannoccio Biringuccio‎,‎ Georgius Agricola‎,‎ Andrew Ure and Harry Scrivenor‎.‎ In contrast‎,‎ trans‎-cultural accounts of the history of metallurgy from eminent sinologists and cultural historians like Joseph Needham and G‎.‎E‎.‎R‎.‎ Lloyd are used‎.‎ Readings on the pre‎-history and history of science‎,‎ as well as histories and philosophies technology from scholars such as Siegfried Giedion‎,‎ Merritt Roe Smith‎,‎ L‎.‎T‎.‎C Rolt‎,‎ Robert B‎.‎ Gordon inform the analysis‎.‎ Social and economic history from historians such as Eric Hobsbawn‎,‎ William T‎.‎Hogan and David Brody are consulted‎;‎ labour process theory is also examined‎,‎ particularly the influential writings of F‎.‎W‎.‎ Taylor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and his contemporary critics‎,‎ like David Nobel and Harry Braverman‎.‎ Many other disciples also inform the account‎:‎ histories of urban design and architecture‎,‎ transport and military history‎,‎ environmental history and geography‎.‎