Ninety Percent of Everything by Rose George

Ninety Percent of Everything

Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate

Rose George

Picador · Print & ebook · September 9, 2014

Eye-opening and compelling, the overlooked world of freight shipping, revealed as the foundation of our civilization On ship-tracking Web sites, the waters are black with dots.

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Who it’s for
A clear look at the system that quietly keeps your pantry, closet, and tank supplied.
Genres
Logistics & Supply Chains, How Transportation Works, Ships & Shipbuilding
Published
Picador, September 9, 2014

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About this book

Eye-opening and compelling, the overlooked world of freight shipping, revealed as the foundation of our civilization On ship-tracking Web sites, the waters are black with dots. Each dot is a ship; each ship is laden with boxes; each box is laden with goods. In postindustrial economies, we no longer produce but buy, and so we must ship. Without shipping there would be no clothes, food, paper, or fuel. Without all those dots, the world would not work.

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Yet freight shipping is all but invisible. Away from public scrutiny, it revels in suspect practices, dubious operators, and a shady system of "flags of convenience." And then there are the pirates. Rose George, acclaimed chronicler of what we would rather ignore, sails from Rotterdam to Suez to Singapore on ships the length of football fields and the height of Niagara Falls; she patrols the Indian Ocean with an anti-piracy task force; she joins seafaring chaplains, and investigates the harm that ships inflict on endangered whales. Sharply informative and entertaining, Ninety Percent of Everything reveals the workings and perils of an unseen world that holds the key to our economy, our environment, and our very civilization.

Hidden Currents

A clear look at the system that quietly keeps your pantry, closet, and tank supplied.

Come here for

  • the invisible machinery behind daily life
  • shipping as an ordinary miracle

Expect

  • business-meets-maritime angle
  • modern infrastructure, plainly explained

Where it sits

Logistics & Supply Chains71%
Ships & Shipbuilding40%
How Transportation Works33%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • How Transportation Works
  • Sociology
  • Maritime History
Authors
Rose George
Publisher
Picador
Published
September 9, 2014
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
How Transportation Works