Recommended reading on energy: Vaclav Smil

In 2010 the journal, Foreign Policy, named Vaclav Smil, one of the top 100 global thinkers of 2010. Smil is a prolific and stimulating writer on energy issues. I read two of his books over the summer break, “Energy Myths and Realities” and “Prime Movers of Globalisation”. Smil is no propagandist and takes a hard-headed, fact-based approach to energy issues. The first book covers a wide range of energy issues. The second is a technical history of the diesel engine and the gas turbine, two technologies which he believes have been critical to economic progress over the last century but the impact of which has not been appreciated. Both highly recommended.