"Insightful, precise, and well-written, Burning Up turns energy consumption on its head. From China and Nigeria to the Soviet Union and the US, Pirani fills a crucial gap left by a mountain of shiny but vacuous reports and not enough solid history... Anybody fighting climate change should read this."
--Mika Minio-Paluello, co-author of The Oil Road: journeys from the Caspian

Simon Pirani is Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, and has written widely on Soviet history and energy issues. His books include Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption (Pluto, 2018), The Russian Revolution in Retreat (Routledge, 2008) and Change in Putin's Russia (Pluto, 2009).