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A review by mchester24
Energy: A Human History by Richard Rhodes
5.0
To read the my full review, check out my blog post about the book here: http://chesterenergyandpolicy.com/2018/10/10/energy-a-human-history/
Early this summer, I excitedly discovered Richard Rhodes' newest book Energy: A Human History. Rhodes previously won a Pulitzer Prize for his writing on the history of the atomic bomb, but in his latest book he turns to the history of how society discovered and interacted with various energy sources throughout time. While this book is no light beach read, I found that Rhodes' approach and perspective made it unique compared with other treatises on the history of energy.
"[This book's] serious purpose is to explore the history of energy; to cast light on the choices we're confronting today because of global climate change. People in the energy business think we take energy for granted. They say we care about it only at the pump or the outlet in the wall. That may have been true once. It certainly isn't true today. Climate change is a major political issue. Most of us are aware of it-- increasingly so-- and worried about it. Businesses are challenged by it. It looms over civilization with much the same gloom and doomsday menace as fear of nuclear annihilation in the long years of the Cold War."
Rhodes is a historian by trade, but he avoids just taking the reader through a dry timeline of energy development. Rather, he hones in on key and compelling stories along that timeline, stories with which we're likely unfamiliar, to highlight the notable characters and the captivating societal trends, and in that way he really makes the human part of energy come to life. Rhodes explains the importance of this telling of energy's history, not just for the energy enthusiast but also for the common citizen who recognizes the world is at a pivot point:
Many feel excluded from the discussion, however. The literature of climate change is mostly technical; the debate, esoteric. It's focused on present conditions, with little reference to the human past-- to centuries of hard-won human experience. Yet today's challenges are the legacies of historic transition.
With that, Rhodes invites everyone into the discussion to understand the how and why we got to the present day energy industry-- all it's great wonders and unfortunate ills.
When I was early into this book, I read a colleague's review that expressed frustration that Rhodes appeared to overlook the energy transition we're currently experiencing. I was a little disappointed to hear this, but Rhodes himself notes "you will not find many prescriptions in this book---what you will find are examples, told as fully as I am able to tell them. Here is how human beings, again and again, confronted the deeply human problem of how to draw life from raw materials of the world." After I read this passage and got a few chapters deep, I realized that Rhodes cleverly addressed the future in a different way. Through Rhodes' treatment of historical stories on energy, the fact that these histories repeat themselves is undeniable. Rhodes was not shy about (and perhaps even took glee in) leaving this trail of breadcrumbs from the past to the present for his readers. As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
This book tells the story of energy technologies in societies past, but in doing so it also tells the story of now and of the future. As proof, the following seven axioms represent a portion of those connections I made while reading Energy: A Human History. (Follow through to the following link to read about those seven universal energy truths: http://chesterenergyandpolicy.com/2018/10/10/energy-a-human-history/
Early this summer, I excitedly discovered Richard Rhodes' newest book Energy: A Human History. Rhodes previously won a Pulitzer Prize for his writing on the history of the atomic bomb, but in his latest book he turns to the history of how society discovered and interacted with various energy sources throughout time. While this book is no light beach read, I found that Rhodes' approach and perspective made it unique compared with other treatises on the history of energy.
"[This book's] serious purpose is to explore the history of energy; to cast light on the choices we're confronting today because of global climate change. People in the energy business think we take energy for granted. They say we care about it only at the pump or the outlet in the wall. That may have been true once. It certainly isn't true today. Climate change is a major political issue. Most of us are aware of it-- increasingly so-- and worried about it. Businesses are challenged by it. It looms over civilization with much the same gloom and doomsday menace as fear of nuclear annihilation in the long years of the Cold War."
Rhodes is a historian by trade, but he avoids just taking the reader through a dry timeline of energy development. Rather, he hones in on key and compelling stories along that timeline, stories with which we're likely unfamiliar, to highlight the notable characters and the captivating societal trends, and in that way he really makes the human part of energy come to life. Rhodes explains the importance of this telling of energy's history, not just for the energy enthusiast but also for the common citizen who recognizes the world is at a pivot point:
Many feel excluded from the discussion, however. The literature of climate change is mostly technical; the debate, esoteric. It's focused on present conditions, with little reference to the human past-- to centuries of hard-won human experience. Yet today's challenges are the legacies of historic transition.
With that, Rhodes invites everyone into the discussion to understand the how and why we got to the present day energy industry-- all it's great wonders and unfortunate ills.
When I was early into this book, I read a colleague's review that expressed frustration that Rhodes appeared to overlook the energy transition we're currently experiencing. I was a little disappointed to hear this, but Rhodes himself notes "you will not find many prescriptions in this book---what you will find are examples, told as fully as I am able to tell them. Here is how human beings, again and again, confronted the deeply human problem of how to draw life from raw materials of the world." After I read this passage and got a few chapters deep, I realized that Rhodes cleverly addressed the future in a different way. Through Rhodes' treatment of historical stories on energy, the fact that these histories repeat themselves is undeniable. Rhodes was not shy about (and perhaps even took glee in) leaving this trail of breadcrumbs from the past to the present for his readers. As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
This book tells the story of energy technologies in societies past, but in doing so it also tells the story of now and of the future. As proof, the following seven axioms represent a portion of those connections I made while reading Energy: A Human History. (Follow through to the following link to read about those seven universal energy truths: http://chesterenergyandpolicy.com/2018/10/10/energy-a-human-history/