A comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society throughout history from
pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel-driven civilization. I wait for
new Smil books the way some people wait for the next 'Star Wars' movie. In his latest book
Energy and Civilization: A History he goes deep and broad to explain how innovations in
humans' ability to turn energy into heat light and motion have been a driving force behind
our cultural and economic progress over the past 10 000 years. —Bill Gates Gates Notes Best
Books of the Year Energy is the only universal currency it is necessary for getting anything
done. The conversion of energy on Earth ranges from terra-forming forces of plate tectonics to
cumulative erosive effects of raindrops. Life on Earth depends on the photosynthetic conversion
of solar energy into plant biomass. Humans have come to rely on many more energy flows—ranging
from fossil fuels to photovoltaic generation of electricity—for their civilized existence. In
this monumental history Vaclav Smil provides a comprehensive account of how energy has shaped
society from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel-driven
civilization. Humans are the only species that can systematically harness energies outside
their bodies using the power of their intellect and an enormous variety of artifacts—from the
simplest tools to internal combustion engines and nuclear reactors. The epochal transition to
fossil fuels affected everything: agriculture industry transportation weapons communication
economics urbanization quality of life politics and the environment. Smil describes
humanity's energy eras in panoramic and interdisciplinary fashion offering readers a
magisterial overview. This book is an extensively updated and expanded version of Smil's Energy
in World History (1994). Smil has incorporated an enormous amount of new material reflecting
the dramatic developments in energy studies over the last two decades and his own research over
that time.
