From the 1890s to the 1960s, U.S. steel makers imported more than 70 million tons of high-grade manganese ore, a ferroalloy indispensable to steel production but rare in the United States. Using a commodity approach to highlight the webs of interest and conflict over raw materials that studies of bilateral diplomacy often overlook, Priest reveals the interconnected histories of far-flung mining regions around the globe and the unexamined role of...