"This introduction to materials science both for students of engineering and physics and for the interested general public examines not only the physical and engineering properties of virtually all kinds of materials, but also their history, uses, development, and some of the implications of resource depletion and materials substitutions. It covers all topics normally taught in a one-semester course on materials, but from an entirely novel perspective: the role that materials have played throughout history in the development of humankind and technologies."--BOOK JACKET.