This paper presents a brief critical and analytical account of the development of the concept of exergy and of its applications. It is based on a careful and extended (in time) consultation of a very large body of published references taken from archival journals, textbooks and other monographic works, conference proceedings, technical reports and lecture series. We have tried to identify the common thread that runs through all of the references, to put different issues into perspective, to clarify dubious points, to suggest logical and scientific connections and priorities. It was impossible to eliminate our respective biases that still affect the “style” of the present paper: luckily, some of our individual biases “cancelled out” at the time of writing, and some were corrected by our Reviewers (to whom we owe sincere thanks for the numerous and very relevant corrections and suggestions).