Gregg Dieguez

This book is probably as significant as Origin of the Species.  However, you do not read it, you study it.  It was originally written in 1955, and largely unread.  In 2006, Cottrell’s son found a book update his father had been working on prior to his death in 1979.  The second edition is a bad editing job of a book that was already hard to read.  There are a lot of assertions and typos – more than there are footnotes – but the brilliance of his insight shines through if you focus your mind.  It is the first publication I read which raised these two concepts: 1) Energy Returned Over Energy Invested 2) Energy Defines Society   Others consider this book a masterpiece. If you want to understand how energy has shaped the course of history and continues to shape the structure of human societies, read this book.  I will read it again, and take better notes - so I don’t have to read it a third time.