Books
Trade World
My new book, out in the UK in September 2026.
There are good reporters, and smart thinkers, and sharp writers - but Ed Conway is all three at once... A superb guide to the way the world economy sustains and frustrates us, and it’s full of telling details and provocative ideas — Tim Harford
Reading Trade World is an exercise in revelation, an education in the secret story behind a countless array of connections and products and companies we take for granted, and above all an urgent call to get serious about reducing our vulnerabilities and optimising our future. Ed is not just a masterful explainer of hard problems, but the master. This is my book of the year, unless he writes another one; and merely the latest proof that Ed Conway is the most important - and best - journalist in Britain right now — Amol Rajan
Ed Conway is our age’s master in the art of explaining, in simple, clear and engaging language, the building blocks on which our whole civilisation rests — Matthew Parris
With Trade World, Ed Conway illuminates the vast extent of our mutual economic dependence in the global trading system. With fascinating accounts of how three basic products - bread, clothes and cars - are made, this compelling book stands as a warning about how damaging it will be if these links through trade are unwound — Diane Coyle
The story of trade is the story of humanity. From the copper in Mesopotamian ploughs to the silicon atoms within the chip inside your smartphone, intricate global trading networks have evolved over millennia to fulfil the distinctly human desire to buy and sell. Today, the volume of trade bestriding the planet is unprecedented. Yet, as fractures in the global order emerge – from an era of globalisation and untrammelled flows of goods and money to a new world of restrictions, intervention and, possibly, war – understanding this fundamental shift to the dominant economic consensus is more important than ever.
In TRADE WORLD, bestselling, award-winning author Ed Conway tells this extraordinary story through these three commonplace products – bread, cloth and cars. With a compelling blend of economic history and first-hand access to key figures and institutions, he takes us from policy treaties to ground level to show us the people who make, ship and sometimes smuggle the products we buy on a daily basis.
Discover the hidden, shifting trade world behind everything you see around you.
Material World
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
THE TIMES SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR
**Shortlisted for the British Academy Book Prize 2024 (UK/International)**
**Shortlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award (UK)**
**Longlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing (UK)**
**Shortlisted for the Galileo Prize (Italy)**
**Shortlisted for the Handelsblatt/Goldman Sachs Business Book Award (Germany)**
Picked as a Book of the Year by FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST and NEW STATESMAN
A BBC RADIO 4 Book of the Week
'A compelling narrative of the human story' TIM MARSHALL, author of Prisoners of Geography
'Lively, rich and exciting... full of surprises' PETER FRANKOPAN, author of The Silk Roads
Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium. They built our world, and they will transform our future.These are the six most crucial substances in human history. They took us from the Dark Ages to the present day. They power our computers and phones, build our homes and offices, and create life-saving medicines. But most of us take them completely for granted.
In Material World, Ed Conway travels the globe - from the sweltering depths of the deepest mine in Europe, to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan, to the eerie green pools where lithium originates - to uncover a secret world we rarely see. Revealing the true marvel of these substances, he follows the mind-boggling journeys, miraculous processes and little-known companies that turn the raw materials we all need into products of astonishing complexity.
As we wrestle with climate change, energy crises and the threat of new global conflict, Conway shows why these substances matter more than ever before, and how the hidden battle to control them will shape our geopolitical future. This is the story of civilisation - our ambitions and glory, innovations and appetites - from a new perspective: literally from the ground up.