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Tangential: the cover of Allen's book uses the exact same painting as Vaclav Smil's Energy and Civilization?? I'm reading too much into this but that seems a bi
by kaycebasques 2y ago
Tangential: the cover of Allen's book uses the exact same painting as Vaclav Smil's Energy and Civilization?? I'm reading too much into this but that seems a bit suspect and lazy... And yes I judge books by their covers; it is actually a fairly reliable heuristic for me (edit: but in this case the heuristic would fail me because this book sounds excellent)
https://mit-press-us.imgix.net/covers/9780262536165.jpg?auto=format&w=198&dpr=3&q=80 https://mit-press-us.imgix.net/covers/9780262536165.jpg?auto...
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41gNLyXI-BL.jpg https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41gNLyXI-BL.jpg
Also check out MIT Press using imgix for their image server!)
- allturtles 2y agoIf anything it should make you suspicious of Smil's book, since it was published more recently.
- kaycebasques 2y agoValid! Energy and Civilization didn't live up to the hype for me so I'm happy to include this possibility For completeness we should also mention the other possibilities: * The author(s) had no control over the cover design (which I hear is common) * There aren't many readily available paintings out there that capture the vibes of the industrial revolution as well as this one * No one cares, stop talking about this
- slothtrop 2y agoI only read How the World Really Works, but I thought it was generally good, save for occasional non-sequiturs.
- ghaff 2y agoAllen has been publishing about this topic since the 1970s. I first became acquainted based on his work around knowledge diffusion.
- QuesnayJr 2y agoAllen is probably the leading economic historian of the Industrial Revolution. Reading someone want to dismiss his book because someone used the same painting on their book cover later is probably the most HN comment I've ever seen.