Synthetic Rubber

?On the eve of WW II, the US was almost totally dependent upon the Far East for natural rubber essential to industry and mechanized warfare, a lifeline severed by the Japanese within weeks after Pearl Harbor. Victory required that a synthetic substitute be produced at once and on a massive scale. The story of the Project That Had to Succeed, ' the new industry it engendered, and the difficulties attending its birth is presented in detail for the first time, establishing this as a standard work for researchers in fields touching on industrial development, technology, and government. The authors ... focus on the wartime years, with a preliminary sketch of the prior development of the rubber industry and a brief review bringing the new synthetic trade up to date. Nonspecialists should have little difficulty with the style and content, as purely technical details have been largely bypassed in favor of an account of the organizational underpinnings of the project.... References and a brief bibliographical essay are adequate guides to further information.?-Choice On the eve of WW II, the US was almost totally dependent upon the Far East for natural rubber essential to industry and mechanized warfare, a lifeline severed by the Japanese within weeks after Pearl Harbor. Victory required that a synthetic substitute be produced at once and on a massive scale. The story of the Project That Had to Succeed, ' the new industry it engendered, and the difficulties attending its birth is presented in detail for the first time, establishing this as a standard work for researchers in fields touching on industrial development, technology, and government. The authors ... focus on the wartime years, with a preliminary sketch of the prior development of the rubber industry and a brief review bringing the new synthetic trade up to date. Nonspecialists should have little difficulty with the style and content, as purely technical details have been largely bypassed in favor of an account of the organizational underpinnings of the project.... References and a brief bibliographical essay are adequate guides to further information. -Choice