Rubber, the material that helps make the wheels of the world go round, is given a salutation in this interesting and informative text. Joseph Dreany effectively shows how life as we know it would come to a virtual standstill were we deprived of rubber. He traces the development of rubber from the first wretchedly inadequate product up to rubber as it is now, a material on which transportation, communication, and manufacture largely depend. An account of Goodyear's martyrdom to the improvement of rubber adds a moving human dimension to the book.