"One of the world's most interesting thinkers investigates the large, the small, and everything in between. [Smil] skillfully synthesizes a wealth of material to help explain the world and our place in it. Fascinating. interesting and accessible. Smil packs entire worlds into entertaining, colorful, pleasing packages." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "[An] interrogation, indeed demolition, of our modish and magical approach to mathematics. Wonderfully acerbic. Size is an endlessly entertaining career through fascinating territory.
" -- Telegraph (UK) "Smil traverses the extremes and plenty in between. [A] fascinating inquiry." -- Booklist "Meditates on size and its relation to status, intelligence, wealth, and beauty. Fascinates." -- Publishers Weekly "This book is ambitious in scope but wonderfully granular in detail - and really will change the way you think about just about everything." -- i News "[It is] reassuring to read an author so impervious to rhetorical fashion and so eager to champion uncertainty. Smil's book is at its essence a plea for agnosticism, and, believe it or not, humility--the rarest earth metal of all." -- New York Times on How the World Really Works "No one writes about the great issues of our time with more rigor or erudition than Vaclav Smil.
" -- Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction "A scientific panorama of our well-being and how it can be sustained in our current tumultuous times and beyond. [Smil] aims to combat the widespread 'comprehension deficit' about basic scientific facts, and he seeks to 'explain some of the most fundamental ruling realities governing our survival and our prosperity.' That aim is marvelously achieved. An exceptionally lucid, evenhanded study of the scientific basis of our current and future lives." -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review, on How the World Really Works "A compelling, fascinating, and most important, realistic portrait of the world and where it's going." -- Steven Pinker on Numbers Don't Lie "You can agree or disagree with Smil--accept or doubt his 'just the facts' posture--but you probably shouldn't ignore him. Provocative but perceptive." -- Washington Post on How the World Really Works.