The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World

2011 was a great year for nonfiction, but no book comes close to The Quest for claiming top honors.

Everything we do depends on energy. Every industry, including higher education, ultimately is possible due to energy. Without energy, we could not teach or do research, heat our classrooms and offices, or cool our data centers. If you walked to campus today (or worked at home) that is terrific, but most of us relied on gasoline to power our cars for our commute. Higher ed may not be like the airlines, where fuel is the largest expense (ours is labor), but we are no less dependent on energy to run our business than Southwest airlines.

The past, present, and future of worldwide energy is a big topic, one that requires a big book. The Quest is 816 pages, none of which are wasted. This is an efficient book. Yergin manages to keep the narrative moving along without skimping on either the stories or the numbers.

The Quest systematically examines every major source of energy, including oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear, solar and wind. The origins, technology, sustainability, and personalities attached to each of these major energy sources is given a complete and balanced treatment.

Readers looking either for an indictment or defense of our carbon or renewable fuel sources will be disappointed, as Yergin is scrupulously even-handed and non-polemical. Energy turns out to be too important, and too complicated, to be reduced to simple narratives and slogans. Rather, Yergin manages to consider the role of energy in the environment as well as the economy, while making strong (and actionable) policy recommendations for a sustainable energy future.

Covers all aspects of our modern energy situation--scientific, technological, environmental, political, economic--in a global narrative history that presents every side of every issue in a fair and straightforward way. Full of compelling stories and fascinating facts.

This book is foundational for understanding the global economic and political challenges of the 21st century, because every aspect of our modern way of life depends on reliable and sustainable energy.

Had a difficult time following the first part of this book as I wasn't familiar with the characters / players / history of the patchwork of states that have emerged since the fall of communism. Perhaps I missed it or perhaps its just impossible to tell the outrageous stories contained in The Prize about powerful people still living. There is probably alot to fear from those people. I would bet my last gold deutsche mark the stories that will one day be told will make this period of time very interesting indeed. Unfortunately I didn't find the first half that interesting, though I really need to sit down with a map and some additional history books to gain a better appreciation. Certainly the role of Russia and its satellites in the world today is vastly underrated. The discussion of Putin and Europe alone is worthwhile enough to justify reading the first 40% of the book.

Really hit stride when discussing the US energy markets and the competing energy alternatives. The book is ambitious and perhaps has too much ground to cover. I know something about these markets so I looked forward to hearing what Daniel Yergin had to say. I have to say I am really impressed by the author. Did he persuade anyone with this book? Probably not as the book is really a quick synopsis of key items and drivers for the energy industry in the recent past and foreseeable future. All as seen and interpreted by Daniel Yergin. I really trust his judgement, but clearly readers who disagree with the fundamental view of the author may not enjoy this book as much. Personally I think if you disagree with Yergin you should benefit from his perspective as he may give you new facts and/or a different perspective. I'm sure certain groups of readers such as peak oilers will disagree however. Highly recommended. Not as easy a read as the Prize... so I used a little p in my headline... still worthy of 5 stars however.

Fascinating journey through the development of the modern energy industry and the story of what led to the "climate change" conversation. Nothing promised nor delivered on where it is all headed.

for anyone interested in politics, history, or any aspect of modern society.

This is a great author. I have read “the Prize” at least 3 times and this is as good. It is a great overview of energy. What he has a unique gift for is letting the reader understand the primacy the quest for and acquisition of energy has on everything in our modern life. The book is thorough but fast paced and covers every aspect of energy and provides the reader with a comprehensive understanding of both the recent history of the search for and development of energy sources but also a comprehensive understanding of where we are headed. Its also very level headed…I did not get any “political” agenda. Just the facts. There is no “coal is awful, we need to develop all renewable sources” or “oil is wonderful and will last forever”, rather there is continuous crituqes of previously expounded opinions and the reader can draw his/her own conclusions.
Finally the reading is perfect..well paced, not boring, just a great experience.
I could not recommend more highly..a great great book I am sure I will listen to again.

The book takes an overall look on the global economics of energy. And does it well. I now have a base level understanding of every relevant source of industrial, vehicle and electrical energy. Exactly what I was looking for.One thing, however. I strongly advice to google yourself an understanding of the scales of energy measurements. Things like global daily oil usage in barrels (~80 million), yearly electricity consumption of your home country (around 90 TWh in finland), electricity output of a mediocre nuclear power plant (700 MW where I'm from). That kind of info doesn't transmit very well in the book, and knowing it beforehand helps to understand what the writer is really communicating.

This book provides a broad review of the major energy sources, how they were developed, what is their current status, and the various energy security questions related to them. It appears well researched, and is quite interesting.

Note that the book does not discuss any future sources, or possible technological innovations, but is focused on the past and present of energy.

The performance is, in general, a good one, save for a strange production issue - there's no pause before starting a new chapter, so it's difficult to understand a new chapter is starting, and this is its title.

Story and business making sense.
The book for people who search a deeper understanding of the energy markets and the people around it.

The author is clearly knowledgeable about the modern oil industry; there were plenty of facts in the book I did not know. However, the book fails in three regards. First, the author displays little understanding of the context of events outside of specific oil-related news. His analysis rarely goes beyond the headline level, and contains no discussion of different perspectives on and reasons for events. Second, the author cherry picks sources to make his point. For instance, his certainty that the Iraq War was based on WMDs rather than, say, oil, is back up by sources ranging from George W. Bush to... Laura Bush. Evidence that Iran is building nuclear weapons is provided by "some Arabs say." Finally, the book has no actual story to it. Each chapter deals independently with a facet of or event in modern oil history, with no connection or even transition between them. As such, there is no story to follow.

Thus, the book is good on its oil facts, but poor on context, explanation and story.

Definitely yes

The author, for making the story capturing and entertaining

Excellent reader,

Our energy chalenge

Highly recommended