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Kander, Malanima and Warde’s book aims to demonstrate the potential of energy statistics to understand the historical and economic evolutions of European countries since the Renaissance. During the last five centuries, successive energy transitions allowed an unequaled expansion of energy consumption, leading to our current dependence on fossil fuels. According to the authors, rises in energy consumption and economic growth seem strongly intertwined. Nevertheless, the authors’ tendency to limit their analysis to neoclassical economic patterns represents the major questionable point of this book.