There are over 60 ports in Finland, all of which may freeze over in winter. To safeguard commercial shipping, the ports have to be kept open, and that work is done with icebreakers. Finland has become a global superpower in icebreakers. Today, sixty percent of all the icebreaker ships in the world are built in Finland. Brute force is an impressively written, lavishly illustrated book about icebreaker ships It introduces the reader to icebreakers from Finland and other countries and tells about the history of icebreaking equipment.