At first glance the information set out in Plastic all seems plausible, and unsuspecting readers might naturally assume that Fenichell knows what he is talking about. But Plastic contains so many inaccuracies that it simply cannot be trusted. Errors in dating, both explicit and implicit, are even more prevalent throughout the book. Such compressions of time are common in the book, collapsing events separated by years into an undifferentiated historical present. In fact, the company put its new synthetic fiber through a series of successively more dramatic displays at the World's Fair in response to the incessant clamor of visitors intent on seeing nylon stockings.
Plastic abounds with such errors.
Although Fenichell tells us that British scientists discovered polyethylene during World War II, he later correctly traces its discovery to 1933. Norman Mailer is misquoted, with one of his sinuous riffs chopped into three short sentences for easy reading. It appears that Fenichell was ill served by his editors at HarperBusiness, who also let numerous stylistic oddities pass and even missed a glaring typo in the book's opening sentence. But no amount of editing could repair a book whose research is so casually flawed. The author seems to consider facts to be as malleable as plastic.