Prime Movers of Globalization: The History and Impact of Diesel Engines and Gas Turbines

""In Prime Movers, Smil's passion for the Cinderellas of civilization focuses on the diesel engines and gas turbines that power ocean vessels and wide-body jets. These engines have made ocean shipping and intercontinental air travel so cheap that they have changed the face of our planet. Marshall McLuhan's dreams of a Global Village have become true in unimagined ways. Being an engineer myself, I admire the way Smil portrays the human Cinderellas of the industrial world: the unsung engineers who made momentous advances in the reliability and efficiency of their machines. Smil's book makes me proud of my profession."---Henk Tennekes, author of The Simple Science of Flight" ""A stimulating book that connects the past with the future, from an outstanding writer who knows all about sustainability and the issues that make it such a challenge for us."---John B. Heywood, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Sun Jae Professor, Emeritus, MIT" ""Smil masterfully traces the technological evolution and impact of diesel engines and gas turbines, and makes a convincing case for their role as prime movers of globalization---even though these technologies escape public notice, buried in the bowels of ships, trucks, and power plants, and humming reliably under the wings of planes."---Rajan Gupta, Fellow, Los Alamos National Laboratory".

Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor at the University of Manitoba and the author of many books, including Energy at the Crossroads: Global Perspectives and Uncertainties (2005), Energy in Nature and Society: General Energetics of Complex Systems (2007), Global Catastrophes and Trends: The Next Fifty Years (2008), and Why America Is Not a New Rome (2010), all published by the MIT Press. He was awarded the 2007 Olivia Schieffelin Nordberg Award for excellence in writing and editing in the population sciences.