The things we make that make us who we are The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another Ainissa Ramirez MIT Press, 2020. 328 pp

Without our stuff, we would be naked, vulnerable, and, arguably, not very human. The question of how much of our humanity is due to this material wealth and how our cultural values are baked into the materials we create is the subject of Ainissa Ramirez9s fascinating new treatise, The Alchemy of Us.