Kalkstein als 'Kritischer' Rohstoff: Eine Stoffgeschichte der Industrialisierung, 1840–1930 [Limestone as a 'critical' raw material: A material history of industrialization, 1840–1930] by Sebastian Haumann (review)

The quotation marks in the title immediately hint at one of the intriguing questions in this book: how could an abundant material such as limestone become or be considered a critical resource? Many histories of modernization and industrialization have highlighted the development of industrial complexes by focusing on the growth and expansion of core industries in mining, metal working, and chemistry. Sebastian Haumann approaches his narrative from the opposite direction. His resource history is not in the tradition of the actor-network inspired new materialism approach, as he develops a social constructivist account of limestone praxes and how its application became entangled with the introduction of blast furnace steel and iron works in the German Ruhr area. Kalkstein als 'Kritischer' Rohstoff combines notions of history of technology with environmental history.

The account starts in 1844 with the technological investigatory travels of Prussian iron work experts like Phillip Ferdinand Engels, to the blast furnaces that British entrepreneur John Cockerill established in 1826 in the Liège area of Belgium. Impressed by the new iron works, Engels developed a special interest in the blast furnace input. The application of cokes, and especially the amount of limestone added, came as a surprise to the German investigators. This sparked great interest in the relationship between ores, fuels, and additives.

In Kalkstein als 'Kritischer' Rohstoff, Haumann points at the nexus of knowledge production and the application of resources in these historical developments. Knowledge of resources was co-constructed by applying them. In what Haumann calls this "self-binding" process, specific limestone variants became interconnected with distinct blast furnace designs and operations. He explains how new scientific insights and technological innovation in steel production set increasing demands on limestone quality, which led to path dependencies and lock-in. This involved much more than the scientific and technological development of blast furnaces. The modernization of German iron industries became entangled in geological research and led to scientific investigations commodifying different types of soils, including limestone, into resources for specific technological applications. Haumann shows how these investigations made soils and localities more or less interesting for further exploitation, and how legal distinctions between quarrying and mining played a role in excavation strategies and opportunities. He traces the efforts of landscape surveyors, the planning and layout of excavation sites, and the construction of transport infrastructures. Institutional and market developments, especially cartelization of this specialized trade, established the idea of limestone as a critical resource in the 1880s. This also explains why iron and steel works integrated vertically with limestone excavations. Haumann also investigates the changing environment and the social and ecological consequences of excavation.

By investigating this history from a limestone angle, Haumann has developed an original and interesting narrative to understand the economic developments and social and ecological impacts of the infamous German iron and steel industries. It has also enabled him to illustrate vividly how these developments interconnected localities, impacted the morphology of valleys, and affected local livelihoods for better or worse. But this is not a linear story about economic gains and environmental degradation. It demonstrates the intertwined developments of science, technology, and socio-economic and environmental changes. In the final chapter, Haumann gives the book an interesting twist by highlighting the afterlife of limestone quarrying endeavors. He unfolds how some of the quarries became early nature protection areas and subjects of landscape planning.

Haumann concludes with an elaborate reflection on the kaleidoscopic process. It was this "self-binding" process that made limestone a "critical resource." Depletion and access worries turned out to be fertile grounds for creative initiatives in investigating variants, supplements, and new arrangements. This argument is also relevant for contemporary issues of environmental justice related to mining. Taking into account the specificities of existing material arrangements and local praxis could open up a more socio-environmentally just perspective...