Energy

A Human History

By: Richard Rhodes

Narrated by: Jacques Roy

A “meticulously researched” (The New York Times Book Review) examination of energy transitions over time and an exploration of the current challenges presented by global warming, a surging world population, and renewable energy—from Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning author Richard Rhodes.

People have lived and died, businesses have prospered and failed, and nations have risen to world power and declined, all over energy challenges. Through an unforgettable cast of characters, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes explains how wood gave way to coal and coal made room for oil, as we now turn to natural gas, nuclear power, and renewable energy. “Entertaining and informative…a powerful look at the importance of science” (NPR.org), Rhodes looks back on five centuries of progress, through such influential figures as 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 popular science” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Rhodes shows how breakthroughs in energy production occurred; from animal and waterpower to the steam engine, from internal-combustion to the electric motor. He looks at the current energy landscape, with a focus on how wind energy is competing for dominance with cast supplies of coal and natural gas. He also addresses the specter of global warming, and a population hurtling towards ten billion by 2100.

Human beings have confronted the problem of how to draw energy from raw material since the beginning of time. Each invention, each discovery, each adaptation brought further challenges, and through such transformations, we arrived at where we are today. “A beautifully written, often inspiring saga of ingenuity and progress…Energy brings facts, context, and clarity to a key, often contentious subject” (Booklist, starred review).

Amazing

A whirlwind synopsis regarding the advancement of civilization and the crucial, yet often overlooked role, that energy played. Highly recommend!

I cannot finish due to the accents

The narrator has a nice and clear speaking voice, but he constantly forces these awful accents on the listener; they are bad and distract far more than the value that the narrator apparently thinks they add. It's too bad, the content of the book is interesting.

Goes Off The Rails At The End

Mr Rhodes is an wonderful, knowledgeable writer, and this book is both entertaining and informative... until the last two chapters. At that point, it suddenly veers into a screed against the anti-nuclear movement of the 60’s and 70’s, complete with the author’s personal theories of the psychological motivations that brought Rachel Carson to write Silent Spring (she was undergoing chemo and radiation therapy for breast cancer) and an attempt to discredit Obama’s science advisor by linking him to a racist professor at Cal Tech.

Mr Rhodes obviously knows a lot about nuclear power (he wrote The Making of the Atomic Bomb, an excellent book), but I think he would have been a better advocate for rehabilitating the nuclear industry, and would have written a better book, by making rational arguments instead of engaging in amateur psychology and conspiracy theory.

great but incomplete

overall loved it. my 1 critique is some parts are epically detailed (history or lighing, history of steam power) while other sections se really rushed (nuclear solar, wind) and other sections are basically non-existent (history of the grid, animal power, hydropower). it's almost a more accurate title would be "a history of power until about 1960"

Rhodes si, accents no!

Rhodes’s book Is engaging but is not easy to listen to. Mr. Roy’s attempts at accents are unfortunate and amateurish. He has a pleasant and clear voice. If only he had just read the book and omitted the histrionics.