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  • Energy

  • A Human History
  • Written by: Richard Rhodes
  • Narrated by: Jacques Roy
  • Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (20 ratings)

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Energy

Written by: Richard Rhodes
Narrated by: Jacques Roy
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Publisher's Summary

Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning author Richard Rhodes reveals the fascinating history behind energy transitions over time - wood to coal to oil to electricity and beyond.

People have lived and died, businesses have prospered and failed, and nations have risen to world power and declined, all over energy challenges. Ultimately, the history of these challenges tells the story of humanity itself.

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. 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 Energy, Rhodes highlights the successes and failures that led to each breakthrough in energy production, from animal and water power to the steam engine, from internal combustion to the electric motor. He addresses how we learned from such challenges, mastered their transitions, and capitalized on their opportunities. Rhodes also 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 toward 10 billion by 2100.

Human beings have confronted the problem of how to draw life 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. In Rhodes’ singular style, Energy details how this knowledge of our history can inform our way tomorrow. 

©2018 Richard Rhodes (P)2018 Simon & Schuster Audio
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Would be an excellent read, but a terrible listen.

The narrator, Jacques Roy, is reason enough to avoid a title. If the mis-pronunciations of reasonably non-technical words isn't bad enough the cheesy character accents completely ruin an otherwise fascinating book.

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    5 out of 5 stars

Accents

Jacques Roy does these accents of the nationalities of the people the author is quoting. I found this to be most irritating.

Other than that the book was great and would highly recommend.

Jacques, if your are reading this. Stop with the accents, just stop. Find another way of indicating that you are now quoting a Frenchman.

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