"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. [...] Human beings have confronted the...

Demonstrates how the competition to solve pressing energy problems has become an engine of political and economic change and shares inside stories of current and developing energy sources from different world regions.