Bulletproof Vest

<p><b>A <i>WIRED </i>2020 Book of the Year</b><br><br>Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. <br><br>"Nothing''s bullet<i>proof</i>," the salesman said. "The thing''s only bullet <i>resistant</i>." <i>The New York Times </i>journalist Kenneth R. Rosen had just purchased his first bulletproof vest and was headed off on assignment. He was travelling into Mosul, Iraq, when he realized that the idea of a bulletproof vest is more effective than the vest itself. From its very inception, poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide, or Kevlar, was meant for tires. Its humble roots and mundane applications are often lost, as it is now synonymous with body armor, war zones, and domestic terrorism. <br><br>What Rosen learned through intimate use of his vest was that it acts as a metaphor for all the precautions we take toward digital, physical, and social security. <i>Bulletproof Vest</i> is at once an introspective journey into the properties and precisions of a bulletproof vest on a molecular level and on the world stage. It''s also an ode to living precariously, an open letter that defends the notion that life is worth the risk.<br><br><br>A portion of the author’s proceeds will be donated to RISC, a nonprofit that provides emergency medical training to freelance conflict journalists. For more information, go to www.risctraining.org.<br><br><br>Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in <i>The Atlantic</i>.</p>