Download or read book Energy and Civilization written by Vaclav Smil and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society throughout history, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. "I wait for new Smil books the way some people wait for the next 'Star Wars' movie. In his latest book, Energy and Civilization: A History, he goes deep and broad to explain how innovations in humans' ability to turn energy into heat, light, and motion have been a driving force behind our cultural and economic progress over the past 10,000 years. —Bill Gates, Gates Notes, Best Books of the Year Energy is the only universal currency; it is necessary for getting anything done. The conversion of energy on Earth ranges from terra-forming forces of plate tectonics to cumulative erosive effects of raindrops. Life on Earth depends on the photosynthetic conversion of solar energy into plant biomass. Humans have come to rely on many more energy flows—ranging from fossil fuels to photovoltaic generation of electricity—for their civilized existence. In this monumental history, Vaclav Smil provides a comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. Humans are the only species that can systematically harness energies outside their bodies, using the power of their intellect and an enormous variety of artifacts—from the simplest tools to internal combustion engines and nuclear reactors. The epochal transition to fossil fuels affected everything: agriculture, industry, transportation, weapons, communication, economics, urbanization, quality of life, politics, and the environment. Smil describes humanity's energy eras in panoramic and interdisciplinary fashion, offering readers a magisterial overview. This book is an extensively updated and expanded version of Smil's Energy in World History (1994). Smil has incorporated an enormous amount of new material, reflecting the dramatic developments in energy studies over the last two decades and his own research over that time.

Download or read book Energy written by Richard Rhodes and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “meticulously researched” (The New York Times Book Review) examination of energy transitions over time and an exploration of the current challenges presented by global warming, a surging world population, and renewable energy—from Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning author Richard Rhodes. People have lived and died, businesses have prospered and failed, and nations have risen to world power and declined, all over energy challenges. 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. “Entertaining and informative…a powerful look at the importance of science” (NPR.org), 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 his “magisterial history…a tour de force of popular science” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Rhodes shows how breakthroughs in energy production occurred; from animal and waterpower to the steam engine, from internal-combustion to the electric motor. He 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 towards ten billion by 2100. Human beings have confronted the problem of how to draw energy 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. “A beautifully written, often inspiring saga of ingenuity and progress…Energy brings facts, context, and clarity to a key, often contentious subject” (Booklist, starred review).

Download or read book The St Lawrence Seaway and Power Project written by Claire Puccia Parham and published by Syracuse University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-09 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Claire Puccia Parham reveals the human side of the project in the words of its engineers, laborers, and carpenters. Drawing on firsthand accounts, she provides a vivid portrait of the lives of the men who built the seaway and the women who accompanied them. On the fiftieth anniversary of the dedication of the power dam and waterway, this book is a fitting tribute to the hard work and dedication of the project’s 22,000 workers.

Download or read book Natural Power written by Rock Brynner and published by Cosimo Books. This book was released on 2016-12-07 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The West Texas Power Plant That Saved the World written by Andy Bowman and published by . This book was released on 2023-08-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How one solar power plant might chart a sustainable path forward for enlisting American capitalism in the fight against climate change.

Download or read book The Power of the Past written by Hal Brands and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2015-11-10 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading scholars and policymakers explore how history influences foreign policy and offer insights on how the study of the past can more usefully serve the present. History, with its insights, analogies, and narratives, is central to the ways that the United States interacts with the world. Historians and policymakers, however, rarely engage one another as effectively or fruitfully as they might. This book bridges that divide, bringing together leading scholars and policymakers to address the essential questions surrounding the history-policy relationship including Mark Lawrence on the numerous, and often contradictory, historical lessons that American observers have drawn from the Vietnam War; H. W. Brands on the role of analogies in U.S. policy during the Persian Gulf crisis and war of 1990–91; and Jeremi Suri on Henry Kissinger's powerful use of history.

Download or read book Palazzos of Power written by Aaron V. Wunsch and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "If it isn't Electric, it isn't Modern." Such was the slogan of the Philadelphia Electric Company, developer of an unprecedented network of massive metropolitan power stations servicing greater Philadelphia at the turn of the twentieth century. These once-brilliant sentinels of civic utility and activity were designed to convey "solidity and immensity" in an age of deep public skepticism. They now stand vacant and decaying, a "blight" in the eyes of city planners and a beacon to urban explorers. The first book on the buildings and machines that made possible the electrification of the United States, Palazzos of Power offers a visual and analytical exploration of architecture, technology, place, loss, and reuse. With a foreword by David Nye, this collection of Joseph Elliott's beautiful large-format photographs reveal the urban landscape, monumental spaces, giant machinery, and intricate controls that made up the central station. Aaron Wunsch's essay provides historical context on the social and political climate.

Download or read book Report written by United States. Bureau of Reclamation and published by . This book was released on 1916 with total page 822 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Solar Photovoltaic Projects in the Mainstream Power Market written by Philip Wolfe and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-27 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first and probably the only book devoted to utility-scale solar power – perhaps the fastest-growing sector of the global energy market. Philip Wolfe’s book describes the development and operation of large-scale solar power stations, and will interest all those who want to understand how these multi-million dollar projects are designed, structured, financed, constructed and maintained. It contains case studies of the Waldpolenz Energy Park, Germany, Lopburi Solar Plant in Thailand and the Topaz Solar Farm in California. Also included are interviews from leading figures in the PV industry. It shows the state of the world market and links to an online resource that continues to track the explosive growth of the sector. The book is arranged in three sections: A description of solar projects in context, and how they are undertaken. Chapters on developing and structuring projects; siting, consenting and connection issues; building and operating solar plants; design and technology basics; economies of solar photovoltaics. The second section reviews individual aspects of the project development and operational process in more detail. In particular it advises on strategies to manage technology, commercial, regulatory and implementation risks. These are supported by a comprehensive reference section, including case studies and overviews of key parameters applicable in different parts of the world. Supported by figures and photographs, this book is for anyone wanting to master the commercial, professional, financial, engineering or political aspects of developing multi-mega-watt solar PV projects in a mainstream power market. It is a ‘user manual’ to accompany a sector which by 2015 had surpassed a value of $100 billion.

Download or read book Experiments and Observations on Electricity Made at Philadelphia in America written by Benjamin Franklin and published by . This book was released on 1751 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Annual Report written by United States. Bureau of Reclamation and published by . This book was released on 1916 with total page 822 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A History of Industrial Power in the United States 1780 1930 Steam power written by Louis C. Hunter and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 780 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Resource Contingency Program Chelalis Hermiston and Satsop Power Projects Lewis County Grays Harbor County WA Washington County Umatilla County OR written by and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Silencing the Past written by Michel-Rolph Trouillot and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2015-03-17 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now part of the HBO docuseries Exterminate All the Brutes, written and directed by Raoul Peck The 20th anniversary edition of a pioneering classic that explores the contexts in which history is produced—now with a new foreword by renowned scholar Hazel Carby Placing the West’s failure to acknowledge the Haitian Revolution—the most successful slave revolt in history—alongside denials of the Holocaust and the debate over the Alamo, Michel-Rolph Trouillot offers a stunning meditation on how power operates in the making and recording of history. This modern classic resides at the intersection of history, anthropology, Caribbean, African-American, and post-colonial studies, and has become a staple in college classrooms around the country. In a new foreword, Hazel Carby explains the book’s enduring importance to these fields of study and introduces a new generation of readers to Trouillot’s brilliant analysis of power and history’s silences.

Download or read book History and Power in the Study of Law written by June Starr and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-15 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No detailed description available for "History and Power in the Study of Law".

Download or read book History Power and Identity written by Jonathan D. Hill and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 1996-06 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of essays on indigenous South and North American and Afro-American peoples in periods ranging from early colonial times to the present, illustrating the historical emergence of peoples who define themselves in relation to a sociocultural and linguistic heritage. Demonstrates that ethnogenesis can serve as an analytical tool for developing critical historical approaches to culture as an ongoing process of struggle over a people's existence within a general history of domination. Paper edition (unseen), $15.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Download or read book The Return of Science written by Philip Pomper and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2002 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this collection of essays, historians discuss the applications of evolutionary theory to cultural, social, economic and political phenomena. William H. McNeill presents a magisterial statement about the convergence of the sciences toward an evolutionary worldview. Several contributors offer support for this thesis. Anthropologist Donald Brown and archaeologist Albert Naccache bring together the realms of biology and culture in examinations of evolved human features and modes of evolution. Demographer Noel Bonneuil and neuroscientist Alonso Pena apply mathematics to historical evolutionary processes such as the decision-making of human agents and cultural diffusion.