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Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate Paperback – September 9, 2014

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Rose George (Author)
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Rose George (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars 179 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Picador; Reprint edition (September 9, 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1250058295
  • ISBN-13: 978-1250058294
  • Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (179 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,957 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsFascinating view behind the scenes.
By Chris on August 15, 2013
Format: Hardcover
I have lived in Savannah, Georgia for about eight years now. Savannah is one of the busiest ports in the US (around 4th place). When you get near the river, you can see the massive container ships come right up the Savannah River. As a student I always wondered what sort of people work on boats like that and what their lives are like. Despite the volume of cargo moving in and out, most people here are only dimly aware about what goes on in the port and what's being shipped. The port is in an industrial part of town and the security is tight, so you can't just have a stroll around the docks.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, because it answered some of my many questions. Savannahians in particular (including myself) and people in general don't understand how much our modern world with all its international foods and products rests on maritime transportation. In an early chapter, the author, Rose George, does a non-scientific, man-on-the-street survey of people, so see if they know what percentage of goods comes by sea. The highest guess she got was thirty percent. As the title implies, it's three times that. Most people assume our goods come via plane because they're some much quicker. Container ships may move at a relatively glacial pace, but they cannot be beat for cost-effictiveness. In one of the most shocking lines of the book, the reader finds that it is cheaper to have fish caught in Scotland, frozen and shipped to China to be filleted, and then frozen and shipped back to be sold in Scottish grocery stores, RATHER than pay to Scottish workers to process the fish. The obsession with the bottom-line boggles my mind in this case, but it gives the reader an idea that shipping by boat only adds a penny or two to the cost of most goods.
Ms.Read more ›
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3.0 out of 5 starsInteresting but loses its way
By R. C Sheehy on October 16, 2013
Format: Hardcover
I was really interested in Rose George's book but I do think it lost its way. What started as a great book which explores the vital role shipping plays in our global economy. However it seems to wander off course. It has a big section on piracy which of course is required but it seems like this changes the tenor of the book. What was a shipping book is now focused on piracy. This seems to take the wind out of the sails of the work. Now we lose focus on the shipping industry and all it entails. Some interesting side topics like the bizarre hiring practices and the cloistered nature of the business. The issue on safety is compelling but under utilized as is the nature of crew interaction or lack of.

This is a good book which does a good job of trying but really loses track and misses out on some great opportunities.
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2.0 out of 5 starsSuperficial
By JLGEEE on October 28, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
I found this book enlightening in some ways but feel Ms. George missed many opportunities to produce a comprehensive and revealing account of this vital link in world trade. As someone who spent a good part of a career arranging finance for ships like the Maersk Kendal I purchased the book hoping it would provide the ordinary reader some insights into both the daily routine of the seamen and the ways in which the container liner industry has revolutionized world trade. It does, but not nearly enough.

I found the description of the day to day activity of the crew and the threat of pirates interesting as far as they went. However, Ms. George appears to have been somewhat stymied by an uncommunicative Captain and crew and by the lack of contact with anything approaching a real pirate. She therefore drifts off into discussions of whales and shipwrecks, seemingly in an attempt to fill out the rest of the book. I am afraid she completely missed the opportunity to talk about, among other things, the impact this technology has, together with the internet, in enabling Tom Friedman's flat world. Any book about the container industry that fails to even mention Walmart seems shallow and sadly lacking.
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5.0 out of 5 starsOne hand for you, and one for the ship.
By SInohey TOP 1000 REVIEWER on August 27, 2013
Format: Hardcover
This has to be one of the more enjoyable books of the summer. Rose George has once more written a book about a subject that most people don't spend much time wondering about; and has plunged wholeheartedly into the matter. Her last offering, The Big Necessity was elucidating the journey of human waste from production to terminal disposal, and for that, she went wading into the muck of sewers to get a first hand experience of the excursion.
This time Rose joined the merchant marine, not "to see the world" as the saying goes, but to experience the life of seafarers, mostly ignored by the rest of society. She began her journey of "thirty-nine days at sea, six ports, two oceans, five seas, and the most compellingly foreign environment she is ever likely to encounter" when she boarded the Danish container ship, Maersk Kendal "from the southern English port of Felixstowe to Singapore for five weeks and 9,288 nautical miles through the pillars of Hercules, pirate waters and weather."
Along the way she experiences the excitement of discovery and the boredom of unrelenting monotony. She witnesses the hardships and injustice meted to the seamen on board, the long working hours (illegal in most countries), poor pay, cramped quarters, unhygienic environment and crimes from petty theft to rapes and even murder; all adjudicated by the unquestioned authority of the ship's captain.
"we were told that the captain is our god; he can marry you, baptize you, and even bury you without anybody's permission. We were told that the sea is no-man's-land and that what happens at sea stays at sea."

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsKnowledge Expanding

"I am about to embark to a place and space that is usually off-limits and hidden. The public is not allowed on a ship like this, nor even on the dock. Read more

Published 22 hours ago by Mike DePue, OFS
1.0 out of 5 starsDisappointing

After seeing the title and cover image I thought this should be a good book on Shipping! But sorry, this ain't... You hardly get anything from this book.. Read more

Published 5 days ago by Raja
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Highly readable, provides a fascinating view of life in commercial shipping.

Published 27 days ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsFascinating

Fantastic book, easy to read, very informative, arguably important. I bought this after catching the author's Ted Talk, and it was better than I dared to hope. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Paige R. Penland
3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars

Interesting read

Published 2 months ago by Wayne W. Alexander
4.0 out of 5 starsInsightful views into the invisible world that delivers all our stuff

Ninety percent of everything we use comes from overseas; this isn't new information. But the realities of pirate waters, flag states, and working conditions were shockingly so. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Karen L. Shumway
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent overview of the shipping industry

It's very pleasant reading, covering a wide spectrum of the industry, sometimes with a strong opinion but most of the times in as dispassionate as it is possible to look at such a... Read more

Published 3 months ago by charles Yamamura
1.0 out of 5 starsIf you know anything about shipping, don't bother.

This book was horrendous. I work in logistics and have for over 10 years. I don't have much experience in ocean and was interested to read more about the products and processes... Read more

Published 3 months ago by CG
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

Good insight into the world of merchant shipping

Published 4 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsA wonderful book.

Another winner from Rose George. I admire her topic choice and her writing style. Once again I came away feeling I truly learned something about a world I barely knew. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Neil D. Myers

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