A “meticulously researched” (The New York Times Publication Review) examination of energy transitions as time passes and an exploration of the existing problems presented by global warming, a surging world population, and renewable energy—from Pulitzer Prize- and Country wide Book Award-winning writer Richard Rhodes.

Folks have lived and died, businesses have prospered and failed, and countries have risen to world power and declined, around energy challenges. Through an memorable cast of character types, about Energy: A Human History Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes clarifies how wood provided method to coal and coal produced room for essential oil, as we now use gas, nuclear power, and renewable energy. “Entertaining and useful…a powerful look at the importance of science” (NPR.org), Rhodes looks back again on five decades of improvement, through such influential figures while Queen Elizabeth I, King James I, Benjamin Franklin, Herman Melville, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Ford.

In his “magisterial history…a tour de force of well-known science” (Kirkus Reviews, starred evaluate), Rhodes displays how breakthroughs in energy production occurred; from animal and waterpower to the vapor engine, from internal-combustion towards the electrical motor. He looks at the existing energy landscape, using a concentrate on how wind energy is competing for dominance with ensemble supplies of coal and natural gas. He also addresses the specter of global warming, and a populace hurtling towards ten billion by 2100.

Humans have confronted the issue of how to draw energy from raw material since the beginning of your time. Each invention, each finding, each version brought further challenges, and through such transformations, we attained where we are today. “A attractively written, often uplifting saga of ingenuity and improvement…Energy brings facts, context, and clarity to an integral, often contentious subject” (Booklist, starred review).