Energy: A Human History Hardcover – May 29, 2018

Well written and copiously annotated. It is an interesting read from ancient times to the current problems of the day.

Richard Rhodes has an amazing capacity to digest enormous amounts of information, digest them and present them in a manner accessible to most readers. This book is an excellent read about how energy use has progressed from wood to coal to oil, natural gas and on to nuclear and renewables. My one caveat and major disagreement with his presentation is that he veers off into propaganda for the nuclear industry and fatuously optimistic projections about how the world will continue to progress in the face of massive overpopulation and resource depletion. He ignores the dangers of nuclear terrorism, nuclear warfare and the incompetence of nuclear energy companies. As well he seems to have read nothing about our destruction of the oceans, atmosphere and agricultural resources. Despite these qualms this is a valuable book regarding the challenges facing humanity as we seek solutions to energy development and maintenance.

The book is excellent. It explains our energy past to elucidate our energy present and future. And it’s quite well written.However, don’t buy this or any other book with graphs, photos, or illustrations on the Kindle app. This book has many such features which I’m sure would aid in comprehending the material, if only they were rendered at a size larger than my little fingernail. As it stands, it is impossible to even see what most of the diagrams and photos are meant to convey. And yes, I tried to no avail to enlarge them.Amazon really needs to fix this. For now, though, I’d advise folks to avoid trying to read even marginally technical books on the Kindle app.

Free flowing and highly readable, indeed engrossing with many fascinating vignettes about historical events that shaped energy markets. And I was pleasantly surprised this was not an ideological treatise about fossil fuels and climate change, in fact reading between the lines it seemed to me that because of their inability to be scaled without huge subsidies the author is highly skeptical about renewable sources like wind and solar, waxing instead about the lost promise of nuclear, lost because in a democracy irrational fears (in this case about radioactivity) become accepted in to the public discourse as hard fact. He probably needed to be circumspect about his skepticism of wind and solar for fear of being skewered alive on the altar of political correctness by the "climate scientist" cabal, always fearful of some counterargument to the Faith jeopardizing their research grants.....

The story of energy from the time of Shakespeare to the 1960s is well told with many amusing anecdotes. The last two chapters of the book try to articulate a theory of energy transitions with the next one being nuclear energy. Rhodes writes off renewable energy as being of marginal importance. That assertion made in 2017 sounds very dated now. His attempt to link opponents of nuclear energy to misanthropists like David Malthus and Paul Ehrlich is also unconvincing.

I was pleasantly surprised at the balanced emphasis on the view of energy through the centuries. Rhodes has a realistic view for the requirements of different energy sources in the present and future world.Anyone with an interest in the evolution of energy in the past and future should read this well written book.

I enjoyed this book and found it interesting. I believe it should really have been called "Fuel" instead of energy. The difference is subtle but the author really is talking about what and where we derive energy from (sources). I found the book inconsistent at times and this effected its flow. But over all well researched and educational and a worthwhile read.One MAJOR problem with this book, the Kindle version, and NOT the author's fault was how Amazon digitized it. Most of the diagrams where improperly digitized and as a result they were tiny. Way too small to be seen on a Kindle. And you were not able to enlarge them as in other Amazon Kindle books where yo have the ability to enlarge pictures. Some were properly coded and could be enlarged. But most were not.

This is a great walk through the evolution of energy and a view of what is to come. Even if you think you know everything about how we got to where we are and the path forward, you will be surprised at how the author ties it all together. this book is a well balanced view of what we face and offers some thoughts on the path forward. It does a very good job in the discussion of today's energy picture to bring out the hidden biases that have been shaping the public discussion. There were some surprises in that section for me.