Sign-In
Cart
Size: How It Explains the World
Audio Book
Technology & EngineeringGeneral SociologyHistory & Philosophy of Science
Currently unavailable to order
Please enter your email and a message will be sent to you when this product becomes available on our website.
Publisher: Harpercollins
Published: May 16 2023
Language: English
From the New York Times bestselling author of How the World Really Works, a wide-ranging look at the most fundamental governing principle of our world: size, whose laws, limits, and peculiarities offer the key to understanding health, wealth, and even happiness
No one writes about the great issues of our time with more rigor or erudition than Vaclav Smil. -- Elizabeth Kolbert
To answer the most important questions of our age, we must understand size. Neither bacteria nor empires are immune to its laws. Measuring it is challenging, especially where complex systems like economies are concerned, yet mastering it offers rich rewards: the rise of the West, for example, was a direct result of ever more accurate and standardized measurements.
Using the interdisciplinary approach that has won him a wide readership, Smil draws upon history, earth science, psychology, art, and more to offer fresh insight into some of our biggest challenges, including income inequality, the spread of infectious disease, and the uneven impacts of climate change. Size explains the regularities--and peculiarities--of the key processes shaping life (from microbes to whales), the Earth (from asteroids to volcanic eruptions), technical advances (from architecture to transportation), and societies and economies (from cities to wages). This book about the big and the small, and the relationship between them, answers the big and small questions of human existence:
What makes a human society too big? What about a human being?Which alternative energy sources have the best chance of scaling and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels?Why do tall people make more money?What makes a face beautiful? How about a cathedral?How can changing the size of your plates help you lose weight?The latest masterwork of an ambitious and astonishing polymath who swings for fences (Wired) Size is a mind-bending journey that turns the modern world on its head.
1 different editions
Also available
Also in
General Sociology
The Clash of Globalizations: Neo-Liberalism, the Third Way and Anti-Globalization
Kiely, Ray
Paperback
Everyone Helps, Everyone Wins: How Absolutely Anyone Can Pitch In, Help Out, Give Back, and Make the World a Better Place
Levinson, David T.
Paperback
Transformation from Below? White Suburbia in the Transformation of Apartheid South Africa to Democracy
Scheidegger, Ursula
Paperback
Games Against Nature: An Eco-Cultural History of the Nunu of Equatorial Africa
Robert, Harms
Harms, Robert
Paperback
Making Capitalism: The Social and Cultural Construction of a South Korean Conglomerate
Yim, Dawnhee
Janelli, Roger L.
Hardcover
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All
Soares, Nate
Yudkowsky, Eliezer
Hardcover
When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life
Pinker, Steven
Hardcover
Mommy Burnout: How to Reclaim Your Life and Raise Healthier Children in the Process
Ziegler, Sheryl Gonzalez
Paperback
Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home
Grant, Stephen Starring
Hardcover
Life After Cars: Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile
Gordon, Doug
Naparstek, Aaron
Goodyear, Sarah
Hardcover
Your Favorite Scary Movie: How the Scream Films Rewrote the Rules of Horror
Cullins, Ashley
Paperback
Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves
Gilbert, Sophie
Hardcover
Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care
Hayes, Kelly
Kaba, Mariame
Paperback
Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong--and What You Really Need to Know
Oster, Emily
Paperback
Te vas a morir y todavía no has empezado a vivir: 29 principios para vivir mejor (y con más sentido)
Moreno Montana, Uli
Falces, Laura
Paperback
The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990
Mahler, Jonathan
Hardcover
Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering
Gladwell, Malcolm
Hardcover
Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering
Gladwell, Malcolm
Paperback
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
Davis, Angela Y.
Paperback
When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines
Carter, Graydon
Hardcover
Such Great Heights: The Complete Cultural History of the Indie Rock Explosion
Deville, Chris
Hardcover
Human History on Drugs: An Utterly Scandalous But Entirely Truthful Look at History Under the Influence
Kelly, Sam
Paperback
Scream with Me: Horror Films and the Rise of American Feminism (1968-1980)
Johnson, Eleanor
Hardcover
Here Beside the Rising Tide: Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, and an American Awakening
Newton, Jim
Hardcover
Charlie Kirk Quotes: The Courageous Life and Legacy of Charlie Kirk Founder, Turning Point USA
Cohen, Felicity Graham
Hardcover
Empire of the Elite: Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America
Grynbaum, Michael M.
Hardcover
Progress: How One Idea Built Civilization and Now Threatens to Destroy It
McDonald, Samuel Miller
Hardcover
One Nation Under Blackmail - Vol. 1: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime That Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein, Vol.1
Webb, Whitney Alyse
Paperback
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media
Chomsky, Noam
Herman, Edward S.
Paperback
The Perfect Tuba: Forging Fulfillment from the Bass Horn, Band, and Hard Work
Quinones, Sam
Hardcover
How to Break Up with Your Phone, Revised Edition: The 30-Day Digital Detox Plan
Price, Catherine
Paperback
Your Brain on Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction
Wilson, Gary
Paperback
Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse
Chatterton Williams, Thomas
Hardcover
Unmasking for Life: The Autistic Person's Guide to Connecting, Loving, and Living Authentically
Price, Devon
Hardcover
Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful
Enrich, David
Hardcover
Nostalgic Word Search for Adults and Seniors (Large/Big Print) (Large Print Edition)
Press Books, D&e
Paperback
Braving the Wilderness: Reese's Book Club: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone
Brown, Brené
Paperback
Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better
Pahlka, Jennifer
Paperback
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
Higginbotham, Adam
Paperback
American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America
Woodard, Colin
Paperback
Charlie Kirk Quotes: The Courageous Life and Legacy of Charlie Kirk Founder, Turning Point USA
Cohen, Felicity Graham
Paperback
The Pleasures of Wintering: Winter-Inspired Rituals for Rejuvenation, Serenity, and Joy
Niimi Longhurst, Erin
Hardcover
A Field Guide to the Apocalypse: A Mostly Serious Guide to Surviving Our Wild Times
Aktipis, Athena
Paperback
Chase's Calendar of Events 2026: The Ultimate Go-To Guide for Special Days, Weeks and Months
Chase's, Editors Of
Paperback
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure
Lukianoff, Greg
Haidt, Jonathan
Paperback
The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope
Andrés, José
World Central Kitchen
Hardcover
Hit Girls: Britney, Taylor, Beyoncé, and the Women Who Built Pop's Shiniest Decade
Princiotti, Nora
Princiotti, Nora
Hardcover
The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America
Marrs, Jim
Paperback
The Hour of the Predator: Encounters with the Autocrats and Tech Billionaires Taking Over the World
Da Empoli, Giuliano
Paperback
UDL Now!: A Teacher's Guide to Applying Universal Design for Learning in Today's Classrooms
Novak, Katie
Paperback
You to the Power of Two: Redefining Human Potential in the Age of Identic AI
Tapscott, Don
Bradley, Joseph
Hardcover
Drink Water and Mind Your Business: A Black Woman's Guide to Unlearning the Bs and Healing Your Self-Esteem
Oriowo, Donna
Paperback