The Quest

Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World

By: Daniel Yergin

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

Length: 29 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

This long-awaited successor to Daniel Yergin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Prize provides an essential, overarching narrative of global energy, the principal engine of geopolitical and economic change.

A master storyteller as well as a leading energy expert, Daniel Yergin continues the riveting story begun in his Pulitzer Prize–winning book, The Prize. In The Quest, Yergin shows us how energy is an engine of global political and economic change and conflict, in a story that spans the energies on which our civilization has been built and the new energies that are competing to replace them.

The Quest tells the inside stories, tackles the tough questions, and reveals surprising insights about coal, electricity, and natural gas. He explains how climate change became a great issue and leads readers through the rebirth of renewable energies, energy independence, and the return of the electric car. Epic in scope and never more timely, The Quest vividly reveals the decisions, technologies, and individuals that are shaping our future.

©2011 Daniel Yergin (P)2011 Penguin

Critic reviews

“It is a cause for celebration that Yergin has returned with his perspective on a very different landscape...[I]t is impossible to think of a better introduction to the essentials of energy in the 21st century. The Quest is...the definitive guide to how we got here.” (The Financial Times)

“A sprawling story richly textured with original material, quirky details and amusing anecdotes...” (Wall Street Journal)

"[An] important book...a valuable primer on the basic issues that define energy today. Yergin is careful in his analysis and never polemical.... Despite that, The Quest makes it clear that energy policy is not on the right course anywhere in the world and that everyone - on the left and the right, in the developed and the developing world - need to rethink strongly held positions." (Fareed Zakaria, The New York Times Book Review)

Current Events or the future?

What made the experience of listening to The Quest the most enjoyable?

Daniel Yergin paints the picture of oils impact on our economic, social and political lives. The book presented a history while foretelling the future. The book was right on target with the challenges in our world.

Absolutely Inspired!

Every moment and cent you invest in this book will be worth it. Yergin does a phenomenal job exploring the interface of innovation, world history/politics, and energy.

Dated but a good comprehensive foundation

From a 2022 perspective, this book is dated, yet it is a great resource for providing a comprehensive foundation about the subject of energy. As to the Audible, it is clear and well paced.

Overarching and comprehensive

This book provides an overarching and comprehensive story on Energy for the world,past, present and future. Global in perspective and at the same time includes local nuances.

A must read for anyone in the oil and gas business

It is without a doubt the quintessential first book that must be read for anyone working in the petrochemical industry. If only as a fan of history, it should be a trophy on one’s bookshelf. I’ve listened to it multiple times, and it gets better each time.

The holy grail of exploring the Energy industry

This book provides a full comprehensive walkthrough of the energy industry. Truly essential to read.

Right and Left nut jobs will like it

What made the experience of listening to The Quest the most enjoyable?

The narrative was great, and story behind the book was great.

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

He made fact sound like a story.

What about Robert Petkoff’s performance did you like?

It was great to listening to it.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

If I had time to I would listen to it in one sitting.

Great weaving of the history of energy

For anyone interested in energy and how we got where we are, this is a great book. As a utility engineer, I consider this as nearly required reading and hope the author will update this as years go by. The reading itself is also excellent.

Mostly good; could have been better

Any additional comments?

For the most part I really enjoyed this book. Yergin does a good job of going through the history of the geo-political universe that has led us to this point as regards energy. While this book is very U.S-centric for the most part, he does investigate energy from a broad perspective in numerous parts, which adds to the depth of this book. What's more he laces his narrative with subtle historical aspects of the energy story that give it more depth than I was expecting. For instance, he talks about the people involved and the back story in some detail. This makes the book rather long, but it wasn't annoyingly so. In addition, this book was very timely and up to date. My biggest issues with this book were the seemingly glib glossing over of certain problems, especially environmental concerns as regards hydraulic fracturing (fraking) and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. For instance, with the latter the author cites a NYTimes report that bacteria are consuming the oil and that the spill was just not that bad an environmental problem. I think this is a gross simplification of an important component of an important issue. Another problem I had with this book was that the author went into great gory detail about certain aspects of new energy (e.g., photovoltaic effect to make solar panels), yet didn't even mention certain emerging technologies that may arrive on the scene of energy production. For example, no mention of tidal power, which has been operating successfully in France for several decades. Granted this would fall in the tenths of percent of energy currently produced, but if your goal is to look forward to the "remaking of the modern world" one would think that more fully discussing these possible energy sources would be of value. Alas, no. This book is mainly about oil, coal, gas, wind, solar, and efficiency. Don't get me wrong, I HIGHLY recommend this book and think it essential reading for anyone interested in the intersection of energy, conservation, efficiency, and our complex global economy, but it could have been better.

Must Read!

This is an amazing book that takes you through the history of energy in the modern world from an exceptionally insightful perspective. Yergin manages to tell a story about the people, the technologies, the politics and a lot more in a captivating tale. Although I haven't read many other works on the topics, I believe he has done justice to most subjects he has discussed and has remarked without bias, except for that of a logical realist. By reading this book alone, one can get a very good understanding of the macroscopic energy landscape, and get several ideas for further directing their exploration. Overall, this book is must read for anyone wanting a good understanding of the energy world and what could become of it.