How the World Really Works

Delightfully contrarian, this is the one book you need to read to understand our modern world.

We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don't know how the world really works. How the World Really Works explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalisation, to risks, our environment, and its future, this book offers a much-needed reality check—because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts.

In this ambitious and thought-provoking book, we see, for example, that globalisation isn't inevitable and that our societies have been steadily increasing their dependence on fossil fuels, making their complete and rapid elimination unlikely.

Vaclav Smil is neither a pessimist nor an optimist; he is a scientist. He is the world-leading expert on energy and an astonishing polymath. This is his magnum opus and a continuation of his quest to make facts matter.

Drawing on the latest science, including his own fascinating research, and tackling sources of misinformation head-on—from Yuval Noah Harari to Noam Chomsky—ultimately, Smil answers the most profound question of our age: are we irrevocably doomed, or is a brighter utopia ahead?