Uses the extraordinary account of how the biggest private company in the world grew to be that big to tell the story of modern corporate America. The annual revenue of Koch Industries is bigger than that of Goldman Sachs, Facebook, and U.S. Steel combined. Koch is everywhere: from the fertilizers that make our food to the chemicals that make our pipes to the synthetics that make our carpets and diapers to the Wall Street trading in all these commodities....

Pulitzer Prize, and National Book Award-winning author Richard Rhodes reveals the fascinating history behind energy transitions over time, wood to coal to oil to electricity and beyond.

"If, in the ancient world, it was guns and germs and steel that determined the fates of people and nations, in modern times it is electricity. No other form of power translates into affluence and influence like it. Though demand for it is growing exponentially, it remains one of the most difficult forms of energy to supply and to do so reliably. Storage is even harder. This paradox has shaped global politics, affected the outcome of wars, and underlies...

Examines the industrial revolution, discussing how developments in the harnessing of power and methods of transportation changed the way we work and play.

Describes in text and pictures weapons used through the ages, from the stones of prehistoric man to the bombs of modern times.

Uses contemporary pictures and maps in presenting the story of the trappers, miners, ranchers, and farmers who turned a huge wilderness into the "breadbasket of the world."

"Once the source of circumscribed local nuisances, the effects of human activities on the environment have turned into global pollution. The climate is warming, the seas are acidifying, the species are disappearing, the bodies are altered: to give an account from a historical point of view makes it possible not to sink in the stupefaction or the discouragement vis-a-vis a process which seems to have become inevitable. Because the great movement of...