Energy cover art

Energy

A Human History

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Energy

By: Richard Rhodes
Narrated by: Jacques Roy
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About this listen

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
Business & Careers Civilization Engineering History Modern Energy History
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What listeners say about Energy

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Good, but accents were distractingly bad.

Sir, please refrain from accents in the future. Apart from that, good narrator.
Very informative. I'd have loved to hear a little more about renewable energy at the end and a bit less about the minute details of e.g. the discovery of electricity.

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Interesting topics, very well narrated

I have listened to Richard's previous books and always enjoyed them. This was also enjoyable, strayed off topic sometimes. Great narration

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Surprisingly fresh take on the history of energy

An exploration of the affects on human life of the different energy sources throughout history along with the many factors that have affected energy transitions. False starts, stumbles, large arrays of technologies vying for dominance at the same time. Transitions have been reassuringly uncertain, the different factions showing up today as they always have.

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Definitely a must for one's world understanding

the book portrays an excellent picture of how the search for solutions to various problems weave into technological innovation and the improvement of societies!
I think the reader is able to imitate any accent imaginable :)

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Interesting but disjointed and terrible narration

I’m a fan of Richard Rhodes and mostly enjoyed this. Great topic and some v interesting insights. But overall it didn’t quite hold together. Too many missing pieces and the end felt rushed. My main criticism is that the narration was terrible. Not just woeful accents but mispronunciation everywhere. “Jiggawatts” for gigawatts, “bichooomen” for “bitumen” and many other howlers. Pity.

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Narrow

Assumes history of energy took place in UK. Very distracting accents in narration. But interesting

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Awful attempts at accents

I'm sure it contains interesting stories but by the time the inexplicably Indian sounding quotes from James Watt were read I had lost my ability to ignore the performance and concentrate on the detail.

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TURGID DISJOINTED AND SOPORIFIC

Curiously structured book that jumps all over history in a very boring and disjointed fashion that is difficult to follow let alone enjoy. The tedium and complexity of the narrative is matched only by the dullness of the narrator - too softly spoken and most apt to lose your concentration except when he attempts foreign accents, which are laughable bordering upon offensive. Worst audio book I’ve ever waded through.

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    3 out of 5 stars

Silly accents and mispronunciations, adequate text

Not a bad book, but "Jiggawatts" and the bizarre accents really killed it for me. I could almost stomach the latter, but I gave up as soon as the narration began to sound like Back to the Future. The text is full of interesting anecdotes, but too shallow and quite confused. It's unreasonable to imagine every new book matching up to Rhodes' Magnum opus (or Black Sun), but this is an especially disappointing combination.

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