The New York Times bestselling author returns with a mind-opening exploration of how size defines life on Earth.

Explaining the key processes shaping size in nature, society and technology, Smil busts myths around proportions – from bodies to paintings and the so-called golden ratio – tells us what Jonathan Swift got wrong in Gulliver’s Travels – the giant Brobdingnagian’s legs would buckle under their enormous weight – and dives headfirst into the most contentious issue in ergonomics: the size of aeroplane seats.

It is no exaggeration to say this fascinating and wide-ranging tour de force will change the way you look at absolutely everything.

‘Vaclav Smil is a phenomenon with an appetite for facts over prejudice and fashion. Essential reading for anyone who cares about the future’ Lord Norman Foster

The New York Times bestselling author returns with a mind-opening exploration of how size defines life on Earth.

Explaining the key processes shaping size in nature, society and technology, Smil busts myths around proportions – from bodies to paintings and the so-called golden ratio – tells us what Jonathan Swift got wrong in Gulliver’s Travels – the giant Brobdingnagian’s legs would buckle under their enormous weight – and dives headfirst into the most contentious issue in ergonomics: the size of aeroplane seats.

It is no exaggeration to say this fascinating and wide-ranging tour de force will change the way you look at absolutely everything.

We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don’t know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works 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 globalization isn’t inevitable and that our societies have been steadily increasing their dependence on fossil fuels, making their complete and rapid elimination unlikely. Drawing on the latest science 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?
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‘Very informative and eye-opening in many ways’ HA-JOON CHANG, author of 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism

‘If you are anxious about the future, and infuriated that we aren’t doing enough about it, please read this book’ PAUL COLLIER, author of The Future of Capitalism

Is flying dangerous? How much do the world’s cows weigh? And what makes people happy?

From Earth’s nations and inhabitants, through the fuels and foods that energize them, to the transportation and inventions of our modern world – and how all of this affects the planet itself – in Numbers Don’t Lie, Professor Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics and illuminating graphs to challenge lazy thinking. Smil is on a mission to make facts matter, because after all, numbers may not lie, but which truth do they convey?

‘Smil’s title says it all: to understand the world, you need to follow the trendlines, not the headlines. This is a compelling, fascinating, and most important, realistic portrait of the world and where it’s going’ Steven Pinker

‘The best book to read to better understand our world. It should be on every bookshelf!’ Linda Yueh

‘There is perhaps no other academic who paints pictures with numbers like Smil’ Guardian

Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of over forty books on topics including energy, environmental and population change, food production and nutrition, technical innovation, risk assessment and public policy. No other living scientist has had more books (on a wide variety of topics) reviewed in Nature. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, in 2010 he was named by Foreign Policy as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers. This is his first book for a more general readership.