Prelude -- Confluence: dynamos, electric furnaces and the aluminum process -- Chemistry and capitalism -- Commercialization -- Litigation and growth -- The aluminum industry comes of age -- Metallurgical wars and monopoly -- New threats and new markets -- Birth of Alcan and the rise of an international industry -- Paternal capitalism and colonialism -- The 1930s unionization and the end of paternalism -- The great antitrust case -- The war and the new aluminum industry -- Oligopoly and the dawning of the golden age for aluminum -- 1950s: the products of the 1930s come of age -- The 1950s: the aluminum age -- The 1960s and 1970s: the aluminum age -- "Tin cans" and space capsules -- Space age products -- The best and worst of times: 1970-2000 --The world aluminum wars -- The future, science fiction and new uses.