This book has its origin in a network on energy history, the LEG network (Long-term Energy and Growth). This came together in 2003 with the aim of providing standardized and comparable statistics on historical energy use for a range of European countries, as the basis for developing more reliable analyses of energy history. This has been a long and often arduous task, but one enlivened by many convivial and memorable workshops along the way. We thank heartily all of those who have helped us in producing and sharing the datasets and developing our methods: Silvana Bartoletto, Kerstin Enflo, Ben Gales, Sofia Henriques, Magnus Lindmark, Mar Rubio, Lennart Schön, David Stern, Enric Tello, Richard Unger, and Tony Wrigley. This book is in some sense the collective output of them all, although we do not seek to blame them for its flaws. We are especially grateful to Ben Gales, Mar Rubio, Silvana Bartoletto, and Sofia Henriques for devoting substantial amounts of time assembling data series for individual countries and sharing them with us to use in this book. Sofia Henriques deserves an extra heartfelt thanks for checking the consistency of our data and linking it with the International Energy Agency database from 1960. After some years of hard work collecting data and seeking funding, three of the network set out to write a book together, that could synthesize, analyze, and push forward the research that we had assembled: Paul Warde (England), Paolo Malanima (Italy), and Astrid Kander (Sweden). This book is the result of our efforts. It is a co-authored work in that we have collectively produced the overall shape of the book, written some of the sections together, shared ideas, and subjected each other to an unending stream of criticism and advice (sometimes more welcome than at others). However, we have also divided the writing of parts of the book to reflect the particular expertise and approaches of the authors, and each author takes responsibility for our own part. Paolo Malanima writes about the pre-industrial energy system (chapters 3–4), Paul Warde about the first industrial revolution (chapters 5–7), and Astrid Kander about the second and third industrial revolutions (chapters 8–10). The approaches taken necessarily differ at times because of the scope of the subject and the data available. However, we also take collective responsibility for the whole manuscript that we have discussed for many years, and sought to build into a coherent whole. We hope it reflects our shared perspectives on energy history, but also our distinct contributions and the assistance of the many colleagues who have aided us. One legacy of the LEG network is the construction of a new database of time-series of energy use in Europe, including both modern, and for