His book roams impressively around the globe and across five centuries as it asks big questions and searches for big answers. . . .His five-pack of grand transitions encompasses population, agriculture and diets, energy, economy, and environment. . . . anyone who hasn’t read about these subjects since graduation will be awestruck by the amount of research that has gone into these vaguely familiar stories. Smil pulls recent studies together, throws in a few of his own, offers interpretive twists, and fills his account with delicious nuggets of information. (This book actually got me in trouble at home, as I kept asking my family, ‚Did you know…‘ about some gem of an anecdote.)
ISBN: 978-0-19-006066-4
