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

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

3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 · rating details · 715 ratings · 125 reviews

Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year

In this gripping account of the quest for the energy that our world needs, Daniel Yergin continues the riveting story begun in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Prize. A master storyteller as well as a leading energy expert, Yergin shows us how energy is an engine of global political and economic c...more Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year

In this gripping account of the quest for the energy that our world needs, Daniel Yergin continues the riveting story begun in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Prize. A master storyteller as well as a leading energy expert, Yergin shows us how energy is an engine of global political and economic change. It is a story that spans the energies on which our civilization has been built and the new energies that are competing to replace them. From the jammed streets of Beijing to the shores of the Caspian Sea, from the conflicts in the Mideast to Capitol Hill and Silicon Valley, Yergin takes us into the decisions that are shaping our future.

The drama of oil-the struggle for access, the battle for control, the insecurity of supply, the consequences of use, its impact on the global economy, and the geopolitics that dominate it-continues to profoundly affect our world.. Yergin tells the inside stories of the oil market and the surge in oil prices, the race to control the resources of the former Soviet empire, and the massive mergers that transformed the landscape of world oil. He tackles the toughest questions: Will we run out of oil? Are China and the United States destined to come into conflict over oil? How will a turbulent Middle East affect the future of oil supply?

Yergin also reveals the surprising and sometimes tumultuous history of nuclear and coal, electricity, and the "shale gale" of natural gas, and how each fits into the larger marketplace. He brings climate change into unique perspective by offering an unprecedented history of how the field of climate study went from the concern of a handful of nineteenth- century scientists preoccupied with a new Ice Age into one of the most significant issues of our times.

He leads us through the rebirth of renewable energies and explores the distinctive stories of wind, solar, and biofuels. He offers a perspective on the return of the electric car, which some are betting will be necessary for a growing global economy.

The Quest presents an extraordinary range of characters and dramatic stories that illustrate the principles that will shape a robust and flexible energy security system for the decades to come. Energy is humbling in its scope, but our future requires that we deeply understand this global quest that is truly reshaping our world.(less)

Hardcover, 805 pages

Published September 20th 2011 by Penguin Press HC, The (first published January 1st 2011)

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Mar 24, 2013 Ilya rated it 3 of 5 stars

A bird's-eye survey of today's world of energy. Most of the discussion is centered on oil, which is Yergin's specialty. The world seems to have used up 1 trillion barrels of the stuff since the modern oil industry appeared in the late 19th century; there are 4 more to go. Much of the oil is hard to obtain: in Canada and Venezuela it is mixed with sand; off the shore of Brazil, it is under 2 kilometers of water and 5 kilometers of salt. Yet Yergin is dismissive of peak oil theorists: each decade,...more A bird's-eye survey of today's world of energy. Most of the discussion is centered on oil, which is Yergin's specialty. The world seems to have used up 1 trillion barrels of the stuff since the modern oil industry appeared in the late 19th century; there are 4 more to go. Much of the oil is hard to obtain: in Canada and Venezuela it is mixed with sand; off the shore of Brazil, it is under 2 kilometers of water and 5 kilometers of salt. Yet Yergin is dismissive of peak oil theorists: each decade, new technologies have appeared to both discover new oil fields and extract more oil from the already discovered ones, and this innovation does not seem to be ending. There is also natural gas, which is mostly used for heating and not transportation; it is liquefied at the well, transported in tankers, and converted back to gas on arrival; a field under the Persian Gulf between Qatar and Iran has a quadrillion cubic feet of the stuff. Improvements in hydraulic fracturing technologies have led to a boom in natural gas in the United States. Yergin thinks that on the whole, this technique is safe for the environment; others are not so sure. The 2008 spike of oil prices was caused by an increase of Chinese demand for oil; problems with supply in Nigeria (where insurgents attacked foreign-owned oil platforms); shortages of petroleum engineers, geologists, and materials necessary to build new oil platforms. Yergin gives "financialization" as another cause, but does not give a convincing explanation of how contracts to buy and sell oil at a given price in the future affect its price in the present.

The remaining parts of the book talk about nuclear power, wind power, electric and hybrid cars, and other energy-related topics. There is nothing there that is not in hundreds of other books and blogs. The leitmotif is that as the formerly poor countries are becoming middle-income, they want to consume more energy. The prime example is China; the Chinese have been buying more new automobiles than the Americans for a few years now. So the world's engineers, who are mostly concentrated in the rich countries, have to figure out how to run the civilization: manufacture chemicals, transport people to work and back, on less energy, as indeed they have been doing.(less)

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May 18, 2012 Zhifei Ge rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: energy

The central idea of the book is energy can be leveraged to impact global economy, and thus the importance of energy security can never be overstated. The author, Daniel Yergin, touches almost every branch of energy to make his ideas balanced and unbiased.

The first part of the book is on conventional energy, mainly fossil fuels. Daniel focuses on how giant energy companies leverage financial crises to acquire competitors and reduce cost. However, the eventual cost of energy paid by the end-users...more

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May 06, 2012 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Yergin's description of the history of modern energy and its effects on the global economy and politics was surprisingly easy to read and quite enjoyable. It's a bit long--don't read it if you're unwilling to spend some time looking at the oil politics and various warscrises of the Middle East and the former USSR. Personally I found all of that history very helpful. While I knew that oil drives a lot of international politics I never knew just how much, or really how important it is to the gover...more

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Jan 27, 2012 Mal Warwick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Daniel Yergin’s Superb New Book: A Brilliant Survey of Energy Issues

Some two centuries ago a profound economic shift upset the traditional relations of East and West. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, Western Europe and the United States began to overtake the great civilizations of China and India, the planet's wealthiest and most sophisticated societies throughout most of recorded history.

Now those two centuries of increasing imbalance are coming to an end, the result of the combine...more Daniel Yergin’s Superb New Book: A Brilliant Survey of Energy Issues

Some two centuries ago a profound economic shift upset the traditional relations of East and West. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, Western Europe and the United States began to overtake the great civilizations of China and India, the planet's wealthiest and most sophisticated societies throughout most of recorded history.

Now those two centuries of increasing imbalance are coming to an end, the result of the combined effects of five centuries of globalization beginning with Columbus; advances in transportation and communication in the 19th and 20th Centuries; the rapid spread of literacy, especially in the years following World War II; and major improvements in healthcare, which dramatically extended life expectancy across the globe. As the 21st Century continues to unfold, we may yet see today's wealthiest economies -- those of Europe and the United States -- fall behind the Asian giants, as they tap the potential of billions of increasingly healthy, well-educated citizens.

This tectonic shift in geopolitical relations lends great urgency to energy politics today. The rise of the East is as great a factor in the sourcing and distribution of energy resources as climate change. Both factors loom large in economic researcher Daniel Yergin's superb new book, The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World.

In 1991 Yergin published The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power, which gained the #1 spot on the New York Times nonfiction best-seller list, won the Pulitzer Prize, and established his firm, Cambridge Energy Research Associates, as the country's most sought-after voice on energy issues. Two decades later, The Quest broadens and updates the earlier book, relating the monumental changes in energy markets wrought by technological innovation, historic geopolitical shifts, and our changing views of energy and climate.

"Three fundamental questions shape this narrative," Yergin writes in the introduction. "Will enough energy be available to meet the needs of a growing world, and at what cost, and with what technologies? How can the security of the energy system on which the world depends be protected? What will be the impact of environmental concerns, including climate change, on the future of energy -- and how will energy development affect the environment?"

Approaching the topic more specifically, he asks, "Will resources be adequate not only to fuel today's $65 trillion global economy but also to fuel what might be a $130 trillion economy in just two decades? To put it simply, will the oil resources be sufficient to go from a world of almost a billion automobiles to a world of more than two billion cars?" Later the author emphasizes the significance of this question: "Despite growth in emerging markets, one out of every nine barrels of oil used in the world every day is burned as motor fuel on American roads."

The Quest is a big book, gushing with information. Yergin surveys virtually every significant aspect of energy in today's world. He touches on every energy source, every significant energy-related technological development of recent decades, and every major location of energy resources, and he briefly relates the history of each element. For a nonspecialist, The Quest is an immersion course in the nature and politics of energy. It's fascinating.

Ever the dispassionate analyst, Yergin treats highly controversial issues with a simple, fact-based approach. However, despite its ill treatment by much of the oil industry, he takes on the issue of global climate change in detail and with dead seriousness, leaving little doubt that the more rational leaders in the energy sector have no question about the potential world-changing effects of rising global temperatures.

But Daniel Yergin is no pessimist. Tackling the issue of "peak oil," for example, he says, "the world is clearly not running out of oil. Far from it. The estimates for the world's total stock of oil keep growing."

(From www.malwarwickonbooks.com) (less)

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Mar 12, 2013 McKenzie Dickens rated it 5 of 5 stars

Where It All Comes From

It’s not everyday that one considers where the source of energy comes from. Our energy is so seamlessly weaved into everyday life that it’s easy to forget that the supply chain has a beginning. The process doesn’t stop when you turn on a lamp, use your multitude of gadgets or fill up your ultra efficient Toyota Prius. This topic is explored in Daniel Yergin’s The Quest, a massive, comprehensive examination of the world we live in through the lense of global energy consump...more Where It All Comes From

It’s not everyday that one considers where the source of energy comes from. Our energy is so seamlessly weaved into everyday life that it’s easy to forget that the supply chain has a beginning. The process doesn’t stop when you turn on a lamp, use your multitude of gadgets or fill up your ultra efficient Toyota Prius. This topic is explored in Daniel Yergin’s The Quest, a massive, comprehensive examination of the world we live in through the lense of global energy consumption.
The world is rapidly changing with massive, but steady population growth over the next few decades. A majority of these people will come from less developed nations. As most of these individuals rise out of poverty and into the global middle class, they will need to have the resources to power this lifestyle. Where will this additional energy resource come from? Will there be enough? How will the scramble for present finite resources affect the global geopolitical landscape? The nature of these inquiries, as well as many more are brought up in the book.
Beginning with the fall of the Soviet Union at the end of the decade, Yergin gives, in great detail, how international power has been recalibrated amongst the world’s energy producing nations, specifically the post-USSR countries, Venezuela, the Middle East the US and Canada. You really get a scope of the ways the search and acquisition of these non-renewable resources determine world history. It is single handily the world’s largest business, and as everyone knows money is what makes the world go around.
The topic of energy security is also of concern. It’s common to hear that the world is running out of oil. That is a valid concern, especially with the prospects of a rise in global population and the increase in consumption. The situation is not as dire as alarmists would like you to believe. It seems like there has been one prominent figure announcing that we’ve reached peak oil, but they’ve all turned out to be wrong. From the way I look at it, we humans will have another 100 or so more years before the possibility of running out of fossil fuels, specifically oil, will be a problem.
The topic that was most compelling to me and is explored in the last half of the book, is what our consumption of CO2 emitting fossil fuels is doing to the climate. Yergin explores the evolution of climate science from the first observation of suspected glacial movement by John Tyndall, to the discovery of the greenhouse effect and then to the measurement of man-forced global climate change. The unchecked advancement of civilization starting with the Industrial Revolution has caused the level of CO2 and other greenhouse gas pollutants to rise to levels the earth has not witnessed in thousands of years.
Not until recently has the topic of climate change been on the political agenda. Politicians have been guilty of greenwashing, stating that action will be taken, but actually not doing anything of the problems, for many years. As we look perilously forward to an undetermined future, it is becoming obvious that we must change our habits of energy consumption.
In the final sections of the book, Yergin looks at alternative, renewable energy sources. Today, renewables take up a tiny fraction in producing energy, but hopefully that will change in the future. There are several options: solar, wind, and biofuels. The Obama administration has already called for solar to produce upwards to a quarter of the US energy supply by 2050 and surely wind will also be a large dependable factor. In order to reduce the level of CO2 and other greenhouse gas pollution humans have to take bold actions that aren’t necessarily always the best economically or the easiest, but is something that must be done to preserve the only place we call home.
This book needs to be read by every person on the planet, especially policymakers. Yergin really gives a fantastic perspective on the way the world operates. Every facet of modern life can be reduced down to a need for oil. Think about it, the iPad you’re using to read this review, the AC needed to keep cool and comfortable on hot summer days, the car you drive to work that runs on oil. Life as we know it and energy resources are inextricably linked. And since our habitat is filled with finite, perishable resources, having a concern over what drives everything is not just important but crucial to be a citizen of the world. If more people were conscious of where it all came from, then it would be easier to progress to a higher stage of world development. (less)

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Feb 24, 2012 Dan Kearns rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-sub-global-history, history

With "The Prize" being one of my favorite history books of all time, I'm sad to say that this sequel doesn't live up to it in any way. It's a conceptual and organizational mess as it doesn't have the chronological backbone of a history book. Instead it tends to move around so that topics and concepts are approached multiple times and connections are just not brought out.

Further, it is fundamentally predicated on a notion that the economic growth and global integration of the last generation are...more

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Dec 23, 2012 Johnsergeant rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobook, audiblecom, history, current-affairs, energy

Narrated by Robert Petkoff

29 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's Summary

In this gripping account of the quest for the energy that our world needs, Daniel Yergin continues the riveting story begun in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Prize.

A master storyteller as well as a leading energy expert, Yergin shows us how energy is an engine of global political and economic change. It is a story that spans the energies on which our civilization has been built and the new energies that are competing to replace...more

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Mar 28, 2012 Brian Eshleman rated it 4 of 5 stars

I think the overarching word would be MASSIVE. Within this work, the author does a good job outlining prevailing friends that connect the dots from historical incident to historical incident. He also directs scenes that give the personal touch to these trends. These vignettes, at times, are the only things that probably keep most readers moving through this enormous work.

The work would be more approachable if Daniel Yergin narrowed himself down to one or two aspects of energy. As it is, he follo...more

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Dec 24, 2012 Owen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Daniel yergin does amazing work. This follows the prize and it is an anthology of all things energy for the past 20 years and even the past century. He digs into the history of all non oil energy- he covered the history of oil in The Prize . I can't believe how many incredible things I learned reading this book. I learned why California has a deficit, I learned why the minivan exists in a station wagon does not, and I even confirmed an incredible story told to me by an interpreter in Afghanistan...more

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Jul 19, 2011 Gregg Sapp rated it 5 of 5 stars

Possibly nobody in the world knows more about the staggering geopolitical complexities of global energy than Yergin. His celebrated prior, 1992 work on the subject, The Prize, won a Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into a documentary television series. The world today is vastly different, though, and there is currently a need for just such a book as this new one, which has equal sweep, depth, and narrative power as its predecessor. There are five parts, which examine: the rise and fall of “petro”...more

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Oct 24, 2011 Clay rated it 4 of 5 stars

A sweeping assessment of the present energy landscape. It's a great summary in one place of many different issues, but given the scope, careful readers will want to dig deeper to get the full story on many of them. For example, the first section on petrostates covers inter alia Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakistan, Iraq, Venezuela and China mainly since the 1990s. Lots of useful details uncovered, such as Putin's doctoral studies at the St Petersburg Mining Institute leading to his 1999 article arguin...more

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Dec 05, 2011 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: economics, nonfiction

This book is a very comprehensive treatment of all the issues related to energy. The book systematically describes the history, economics, development, transportation, security, and future of the main sources of energy; oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear, electricity, renewable (wind, solar, hydroelectric, plant-based), and "conservation". The danger of greenhouse gas causing climate change is also described in detail. After reading this book, I finally understand why we keep hearing predictions th...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Mike rated it 3 of 5 stars

Yergin is a preeminent energy strategist, this book takes up where his magnum opus "The Prize" left off. Very detailed recent history of various production basins, geopolitics, the variety of energy sources, and risks associated with those sources. It's a long read.

I found his chapters about climate change to be the best history and explanation of how climate science emerged. The US has been a leader in climate studies and the scientists involved have been notable for their conservatism, indeed...more

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Jun 16, 2012 Kevin rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'll say it was a good book, very comprehensive and wide-ranging (something like 717 pages). It covered everything from picking up on oil-industry politics where The Prize left off (1992 - the present), a big focus on the history of climate change science and policies around it, and the history and prospects for renewable energies. It was not as focused as The Prize, though I can see that being difficult as The Prize was a straight history covering a specific topic: oil, where is this was more b...more
I'll say it was a good book, very comprehensive and wide-ranging (something like 717 pages). It covered everything from picking up on oil-industry politics where The Prize left off (1992 - the present), a big focus on the history of climate change science and policies around it, and the history and prospects for renewable energies. It was not as focused as The Prize, though I can see that being difficult as The Prize was a straight history covering a specific topic: oil, where is this was more broad. And I appreciated the attention to climate and renewables, a key interest of mine.

However, there were things I found unfavorable, and not just in comparison to his earlier works. For one thing, I am not sure this book was properly edited. I found myself wondering if he meant to say a sentence a certain way, then found some odd punctuation errors, weird capitalizations, etc. Finally I did a google search on The Quest and Copyedit and found I was not the only one noticing this. So ok, its a first edition, I think he may have rushed to print to keep things topical (he had the Fukushima nuclear disaster, for instance). And its a long book, really long. But still, come on. You pay people for this.

But beyond that, I was struck by the the Republican slant to this. In The Prize (comparing again) there was straight up geopolitical analysis on the lust for oil, not just for countries' own sake but for the purpose of exercising control over others. He strongly makes the case that oil was paramount to British naval victories in WWI and in fact the Allies' overall victory, quoting Georges Cleamencu (I am paraphrasing instead of googling this) that the Allies rode to victory "upon a wave of oil." He connects the attack on Pearl Harbor to oil (the Japanese had none of their own and were reliant on the U.S. When the U.S. cut off oil exports to Japan, they decided they needed to take the Dutch East Indies, which could fulfill their needs. The only thing standing in the way: the US Pacific Fleet.) And he very clearly and eye-openingly describes the straight up power politics of US post-war planning that had its eyes squarely on dominating the Middle East for the purposes of its oil; "the greatest single prize in all of human history." It was understood that controlling the oil of this region would give the US a "veto power" over industrial rivals in the Western Europe and Asia (my college self reading this was pleased to see the overlap between Chomsky and Yergin.) It was clear oil was a dominant interest, for straight power politics, in the power war period, and closely connected to everything the US did in the Middle East, from supporting Israel as a proxy power to removing Saddam Huessein from his occupation of Kuwait.

Everything except, according to The Quest, the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. From page 142, in chapter 7 "The War in Iraq":

Iraq was an oil country. Its only export was oil. It was a nation defined by oil, and as such was a country of great significance to the global energy markets. But the ensuing war was not about oil.

This was not a quote out of context. He goes on to make the case that it was about the perceived threat of WMD. He also goes through this chapter, and many others, attacking strawmen "Some people say this, but the truth is this."But back to Iraq. Not about oil? At all? This I could see from a variety of historians who have colored perspectives, but the preeminent American oil historian? The author of The Prize? There is a way of saying the invasion of Iraq had something to do with oil, without saying it was a naken act of aggression in order to gain control of Iraq's resources and make it a dependent client state. You could take the Alan Greenspan line, who said it was somewhat about oil as we could not let this terrible person Saddam Huessein control all this oil, or something like that. But nothing? This echos Rumsfeld's declaration pre-war that the interest in Iraq had nothing at all to do with oil. Just nothing! At all! Their main export could be potatoes and it would be the same thing.

I won't get into details as to why I think this is clear nonsense, but I will say that I think its clear nonsense, and disappointing. It reminds me of Henry Kissinger's book Diplomacy. Kissinger subscribes to the realist theory in International Relations (which I do as well) and goes through history looking at case studies in the exercise of real politick, showing how all nations act not out of good will but in their own interest; seeking to preserve and grow their own power. We look at Cardinal Richeleu masterminding France's actions in the 30 Year War, the Congress of Europe after the Napoleonic Wars, Germany's maneuvering post-WWI and post-WWII. It was fascinating and showed that, yes of course countries act only in the interests of enhancing their own power. There are no friends, just interests. The strong do as they can, the weak suffer as they must.

Except...the US in Vietnam. Which suddenly Kissinger goes off track and describes it as a kind of war of nobility and altruism, nothing to do with US power interests at all.

So yes, I can see why Kissinger has this inconsistency with Vietnam, given his participation in its execution. And the war crimes. And I can see Yergin's deciding to give this b.s. on Iraq. After all, its more recent and relevant than much of what he did in The Prize; and Yergin runs a likely very lucrative energy consultancy organization, so probably seeks to remain favorable in the industry. As Upton Sinclair said, it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his paycheck depends on his not.

But, nevertheless, this made the book sour. He made a poor argument, even if it was wrong. He also devotes a chapter to demonizing Hugo Chavez in a way you might find on some fluky conservative website. I am no fan of Hugo Chavez, but you dont see this sort of criticism with say, Saudi Arabia, which has an atrocious authoritarian government straight out of the Middle Ages. He also has another chapter demonizing Iran. Which is fine, Iran has an undemocratic government... but again so does Saudi Arabia. So does Jordan. So did Egypt. Actually so does Egypt.

So what I am saying here is that for a good part of this book we see Yergin towing this sort of "official US enemies" line. And thats ok if he feels that way, but its not the kind of tripe I was looking for. This was a good couple hundred pages between all this. If I wanted that I could've picked up some neocon book, which is what all this aligns with.

So that was not worth reading. The latter chapters on climate change go back to what Yergin is good at; narrative history. I found the subsequent section on renewable energies also informative and enlightening. This was for the most part a good book, with a breadth and reach that Yergin masters. Minus the neocon middle, I'd say it was a pretty good read. Three stars. (less)

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Aug 31, 2012 Rishi Garg rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: energy

Very impressive. This book covered the economic, scientific and political histories of energy, managing (somehow) to relate each of these to current events and pressing issues of the day. Oftentimes, books that attempt such a comprehensive approach to such a complex matter will fall short or become confusing. This book is impressive in its detail and cohesion from start to finish. Politics is not avoided entirely, as Yergin spends some time offering justifications for our invasion of Iraq and ex...more

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Apr 22, 2013 Phbinc rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was a wonderful book. It is a comprehensive review of energy - how we have gotten where we are today and where we are going in terms of the world's energy needs. As Ian said, I look at oil companies a little differently and understand the necessity for them to make enough profit for research and development. However, they also need regulation and controls to keep our environment safe. They should be doing more research on building safer distribution means. It is a very balanced presentation...more

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Mar 20, 2012 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

Yergin's earlier book, The Prize, was a very interesting history of the global oil business from the 1850's to the 1980's. The Quest seemed to be a continuation of the story from where The Prize ended and continuing to the present day. The first quarter of the book does this, and one learns about the privatization of the Russian oil companies, futures trading of oil, etc. The remainder of the book discusses electric power, nuclear power, wind power, electric cars, coal-fired electric plants, liq...more

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Dec 29, 2011 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Surprisingly more interesting than it should have been, this hefty tome tries to cover where we are today in terms of energy supply by covering where we've come from and where we might be going. It's a fairly exhaustive read, ideal for Kindle because of the weight of the hardback and, despite all his new energy deliberations, a few trees went into pulp to produce this epic survey.
I was quite pleased to get through the whole book, which must be a testament to its readability and style. Prior to t...more

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Feb 17, 2012 William rated it 4 of 5 stars

Enjoyed this book but not quite as much as "The Prize" which was more about the oil industry of the early 20th century. This book is about energy in general: oil, natural gas, wind, sun, conservation, etc. It concentrates on the last of the 20th century and the first 11 years of the 21st. A very good collection of the relevant information with out dogmatic opinions. From someone who worked in the industry and has followed it closely, I thought the information to be well thought out and mostly ri...more

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Sep 24, 2011 Hadrian rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, science, politics-and-foreign-policy, history, environment, economics-finance-business, globalization

This is something quite extraordinary.

A sprawling, epic story covering energy and its effects on policy, with characters and topics and events from the beginning of the industrial revolution to the death of Osama and the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Covers oil, the petrostate, war, electricity, the computer age, climate change, the new carbon economy, renewable energy, and what is to be done in the future. And all this in a very lucid and readable style.

I would go so far as to say that the search...more

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Jun 14, 2012 Alec rated it 4 of 5 stars

In many ways, I think The Quest was really a tale of two books. In one book, Daniel Yergin picks up where he left off in The Prize and chronicles the trials and tribulations in the oil world from about 1990 until present day and he does so with clarity and an ease for story-telling that matches his previous tome. In the second book, he gives a forward-looking account of the world's quest (get it...like the title) for energy. He discusses a myriad of potential sources ranging from natural gas to...more In many ways, I think The Quest was really a tale of two books. In one book, Daniel Yergin picks up where he left off in The Prize and chronicles the trials and tribulations in the oil world from about 1990 until present day and he does so with clarity and an ease for story-telling that matches his previous tome. In the second book, he gives a forward-looking account of the world's quest (get it...like the title) for energy. He discusses a myriad of potential sources ranging from natural gas to wind to biofuels as well as challenges that each industry will face going forward.

While I learned things from both aspects of the book and now feel much more well informed about everything from the LNG industry in Qatar to global warming to California's god awful electricity policies in the early 2000s (this actually gave me a perverse sense of satisfaction), I will say it was the forward looking speculation that prevented this book from fully capturing my interest. When it comes down to it, I am just not that interested in spending 300 pages reading about what might happen. If I was, I would probably finish reading The Fourth Turning...or maybe Hunger Games. Please, Mr. Yergin, stick to your expertly crafted historical narratives based on impeccable research.

I don't mean to say that only the oil-related content was interesting. The histories of nuclear power, climate change research, natural gas, solar and wind power were fascinating, but once he crossed the present and into the future I drifted in and out. As with any reasonable person speaking about the future, his message was basically "we'll see" which believe it or not didn't provide me with a ton of insight. I probably could have saved myself some time if I just re-listened to Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield.

The book is still 4 stars in my eyes and certainly worth a read (especially for anyone with ties to the energy industry) but if you're only willing to pick up one massive book about hydrocarbons this year, I'd stick with The Prize.
(less)

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Aug 03, 2012 Doug rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: business, history, nonfiction

I thought was The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power an awesome book, the story of the greatest game in human civilization, a Darwinian struggle for energy mastery whose outcomes determine the rise and fall of nations and empires, and where fortunes are won and lost in an instant. This book takes up from where the Prize ended, and it shows a more open approach to meeting the world energy needs for the 21st century, a world where where whole new avenues of energy are available, from...more

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Apr 28, 2012 Jrohde rated it 4 of 5 stars

a well researched and comprehensive review of the entire energy sector. very factual yet readable and convincing - I would say a conservative view, yet realistic that predicts carbon fuels well into the future - 80% in 2030 - deals with wind, solar, improved efficiency, new vehicles and a host of other options but in the end rather likely that not much will change. though he recognises that there is much pressure to change away from carbon, sees liottle liklihood that will happen very fast.
at 8...more

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Apr 11, 2013 Pete Welter rated it 5 of 5 stars

"The Quest" is a thick book about a broad topic: energy and it's place in our world. As one of the world's foremost experts on the topic, Daniel Yergin covers the history, the geography, and the security of energy, as well as it's various froms from fossil fuels to alternatives. Furthermore, he does this all in a style filled with stories and characters that make the material a relatively quick read compared to other non-fiction books of this type.

So, why would one want to read this book? Becaus...more "The Quest" is a thick book about a broad topic: energy and it's place in our world. As one of the world's foremost experts on the topic, Daniel Yergin covers the history, the geography, and the security of energy, as well as it's various froms from fossil fuels to alternatives. Furthermore, he does this all in a style filled with stories and characters that make the material a relatively quick read compared to other non-fiction books of this type.

So, why would one want to read this book? Because energy affects all of us, in many aspects of our lives, and whatever you opinions on the matter, it's worth understanding the history and context. In short, it's complicated. Energy is intertwined deeply into our planet's politics, economy and environment, and further complicated by issues of history and geography. Taken a system, energy has so many moving parts and dependencies that almost any change causes ripple effects many steps away from the source. I can't say that reading one book let's one gain a full understanding, but The Quest will give you the background to read news and parse opinion pieces much more effectively.

A few of my takeaways:
* the dollars involved in this business are mind-boggling. We generally see the profits in the news, but there one can also appreciate the size and audacity of some of the gambles that have been made in service to finding and distributing energy.
* whatever you think might be new in the energy business was probably thought about and tried 100 years ago, and probably brought up 3/4/5 times between then and now, stopped usually by technology or economics
* energy is a fickle business of large gambles. The up and down nature of the business, affected by causes that predictable, random, or the result of unanticipated consequence, means that somebody is nearly always making or losing huge amounts of money.
* the basic laws of nature mean that there aren't any magic answers, and the long time scales mean that even super promising changes take a generation to have a noticeable effect. Frustrating for those of us raised in the world of Moore's law.

So, I give this book five stars not because you'll be on the edge of your seat, or because every page is important. I give it 5 starts because it can expand your world view in an area that is centrally important to all of us.

(less)

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Jul 10, 2012 David Jedeikin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Incredibly informative, deep, comprehensive look at the energy industry over the last twenty years; essentially a sequel of sorts to Yergin's "The Prize", published over two decades ago. From assessments of every major oil-producing country's present and future; to the discovery of global warming (yes, it's real, and the science to back it up is laid out here brilliantly); to the future of non-fossil energies, this book is practically an A-to-Z primer on how we make and use energy in today and t...more

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Dec 01, 2012 James rated it 3 of 5 stars

Initial Review (Audio 10 of 37) This is going to be a long book (862 pages or roughly 30 audio hours). I've learned alot about Russian oil and South American oil. So many geopolitical events play out that we never hear about.

Finished. The first 10 of 37 audio tracks was mostly history and I put the book away for 2 months until restarting. This is also book #9 of an environment & earth sciences collection of books I'm trying to get through.

Once I started back into the book, I found the transi...more

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May 18, 2012 David James rated it 4 of 5 stars

Anyone wishing to understand energy issues eventually needs to read Daniel Yergin. His classic work, "The Prize," left most of its readers viewing the history of the twentieth century through a barrel of oil. "The Quest" has been marketed as something of a sequel to that earlier book, but it is less a history than an overall assessment of our current energy situation. Ranging from oil to alternative fuels, environmental concerns to electricity options, geopolitics to speculations on the future,...more Anyone wishing to understand energy issues eventually needs to read Daniel Yergin. His classic work, "The Prize," left most of its readers viewing the history of the twentieth century through a barrel of oil. "The Quest" has been marketed as something of a sequel to that earlier book, but it is less a history than an overall assessment of our current energy situation. Ranging from oil to alternative fuels, environmental concerns to electricity options, geopolitics to speculations on the future, and much more, this book pretty much has it all.

While "The Prize" had an unbeatable narrative drive, "The Quest" feels a bit convoluted at times as Yergin attempts to explore all aspects of energy. It's less a single book in that regard than a collection of long essays tackling a common theme from varying angles. Readers expecting the experience they received from the first book (which showed how deeply oil and the events of the twentieth century were intertwined) might be a bit disappointed. However, no one gets the connection between energy, politics, and economics more clearly than Yergin, and he remains a powerful storyteller, even if here he is telling numerous stories rather than one.

Yeergin has been criticized, and not without cause, for being too close to the industry he covers. While this gives him an inside line that other authors lack, it also leads to a tendency on his part to restrain from criticisms that need to be made. This is especially clear in his far too brief and nonjudgmental handling of BP's Gulf blowout. However, unlike many industry insiders, Yergin takes the impact of carbon emissions on climate quite seriously, and he dedicates considerable space to a sober analysis of what we are doing to our planet and what we need to do to reduce the damage we are inflicting, as well as ways we can do this while maintaining our standard of living.

"The Prize" was deserving of about seven stars on a scale of one to five. This one gets four for being essential, but it won't cause readers to rethink the world they live in the way the first book did. This is a handbook for today's energy world. It's not earth-shaking, but it tells readers much of what they need to know.

A brief gripe as a reader. The copy editing on this book is atrocious. Typographical errors litter every chapter (my favorite was where protons and electrons were listed as protons and elections). I'm seeing more and more of this from major publishers, who seem to have replaced readers with computer programs that check the spelling, but not the words themselves. It's reaching the point where major houses like Penguin (which published this one) are worse than vanity presses. It's unacceptable. Yergin is one of our best thinkers today, and a highly skilled wordsmith. He deserved better than this.(less)

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Jun 10, 2012 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: economics

I was expecting a bit more out of this book. I was a great fan of Yergin's book The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power. It dove very deep into the history of the oil industry and providing lots of interesting insights. The Quest read more like a survey course, touching lightly on a wide range of energy topics that face the modern world. Where The Prize was very focused, this book was more a Jack-of-all-Trades read. For someone new to the energy field it is an excellent introductory...more

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Sep 23, 2012 Tim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

update: glad i stuck with it. the thematic-focus (rather than chronological) doesn't always make sense, but the stories are easy to read, easy to follow, and easy to learn from. thomas edison, the fukushima disaster, fracking, the death and rebirth of the electric car, congress -- it's all covered, and it's really very long but well worth the time investment.

a fantastic follow-up to his first book on oil, the prize. this book includes a history of the last 20 yrs in iraq, bahrain, venezuela; an...more

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Dec 23, 2011 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

"The Quest" is a sort of sequel to Daniel Yergin's Pulitzer Prize-winning book "The Prize," which was a history of oil.
"The Quest" advances the story all the way into 2011, and broadens it to all aspects of energy and energy security. Events of the first part of this year, such as the Japanese tsunami's effect on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and the Arab spring, make frequent appearances.
Yergin starts with oil and then moves to security, electricity, climate change and carbon, renewable...more "The Quest" is a sort of sequel to Daniel Yergin's Pulitzer Prize-winning book "The Prize," which was a history of oil.
"The Quest" advances the story all the way into 2011, and broadens it to all aspects of energy and energy security. Events of the first part of this year, such as the Japanese tsunami's effect on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and the Arab spring, make frequent appearances.
Yergin starts with oil and then moves to security, electricity, climate change and carbon, renewable energy and finally new ways to operate and fuel the automobile.
The book is packed with information. We learn, for example, that the world has been thought to be running out of oil on five different occasions. And that the first flex fuel vehicle was the Model T Ford. It was designed to run on either ethanol or gasoline, although Henry Ford preferred ethanol. And that Prohibition helped to knock out ethanol for quite some time.
The strongest section, I thought, was the part about climate change. It was a much more clear explanation of climate change than any I've ever read before. (But I still don't understand cap-and-trade.) The section on renewables was weaker. But I gradually got the message that every renewable source has promise and every renewable source has problems.
"The Quest" seemed to me to be very well-balanced. I didn't feel like I was being presented with one set of facts to lead me to only one possible conclusion, as I so often do when I hear from politicians or read newspaper columns.
I also thought much of it was dull. This was in contrast to "The Prize," which I thought was fascinating history and fun to read virtually on every page. I found myself wondering if Yergin had a different editor this time around. If so, it wasn't a change for the better.
The book also showed signs of being hastily edited. I suppose, given all of the 2011 references, it was hastily edited, and I don't mean to say that the mistakes are egregious. But every once in a while, there are no quotation marks to end a quotation, or a word is out of place or the wrong word is used. It makes what's left of this former copy editor's hair stand on head, just as it does when I see my own mistakes in print. (less)

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“A lesson in bringing about true changes of mind and heart comes from a Japanese functionary. By day, he crunched numbers that showed his country was approaching imminent energy crisis and helped to craft policy. By night, he weaved a novel in which a bureaucrat-hero helps see the country through to new energy sources. When the crisis came faster than he expected, he actually put the novel away because he did not want to make the burden of his countrymen worse. When the short-term crisis passed, he published his novel. It's phenomenal and well-timed success fueled the vision that inspired difficult change and maintained a sense of urgency.” — 1 person liked it

“An important United Nations environmental conference went past 6:00 in the evening when the interpreters' contracted working conditions said they could leave. They left, abandoning the delegates unable to talk to each other in their native languages. The French head of the committee, who had insisted on speaking only in French throughout the week suddenly demonstrated the ability to speak excellent English with English-speaking delegates.” — 1 person liked it

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