Empire of Energy: Environment, Geopolitics, and American Technology before the Age of Oil (2007)
Shulman, Peter Adam (Author)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT
Kaiser, David I.
Edition Details: Advisor: Kaiser, David I.
Language: English
This dissertation asks how the United States physically built its global empire. Between 1840 and 1930, empire building involved the establishment of a network of naval bases and coaling stations. By focusing on energy, I reconceptualize the American overseas empire as neither inevitable nor geographically predetermined. I trace how coal shaped U.S. expansion, how this expansion influenced ideas about national security, and how these security concerns affected the global environment. Coal reveals continuities in American foreign relations that link overseas expansion to responses to the introduction of steam power into ocean travel. As the Navy sought coal, it progressively assembled the familiar contours of America's global reach. The dissertation addresses both global and local history. It shows how policy makers before the Civil War demonstrated tremendous creativity in initiating geological investigations, diplomatic arrangements, and commercial agreements in foreign territories. Between the Civil War and 1898, these approaches gradually gave way to a more singular effort by the Navy to control strategic ports around the world. Soon, coal was so central to the Navy that coaling strategy and technology formed a foundation for the education of elite officers at the Naval War College, where its study shaped the planning for future wars. Attention to Americans in Borneo, Japan, the Isthmus of Chiriqui, Haiti, and Alaska shows how coal reoriented the American geographic perspectives. Three themes structure this work. First, the peculiar geography of the U.S. overseas empire of coaling stations was never predetermined, for the perceived needs of expansion changed with evolving diplomatic and technological circumstances. Paying close attention to scientists and engineers, I show how the fundamental obstacles presented by coal were addressed not only by diplomacy but also new inventions and geological expeditions. Second, that the American pursuit of steamship lines, coal, and territory abroad took place amid the global context of other maritime nations. Finally, the ultimate shape of American global expansion often depended on the particular histories of specific places and local events. I thus show how coal linked mine labor, professional geologists, naval officers, and global expansion to the construction of a recognizably modern United States. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617- 253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)
...MoreDescription Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 68/06 (2007). Pub. no. AAT 0818748.
Similar Citations
Article
Jones, Christopher F.;
(2013)
Building More Just Energy Infrastructure: Lessons from the Past
(/isis/citation/CBB001320574/)
Thesis
Zajacz, Rita;
(2006)
Technological Change, Hegemonic Transition and Communication Policy: State-MNC Relations in the Wireless Telegraph Industry, 1896--1934
(/isis/citation/CBB001560766/)
Article
Quataert, Donald;
Gutman, David;
(2012)
Coal Mines, the Palace, and Struggles over Power, Capital, and Justice in the Late Ottoman Empire
(/isis/citation/CBB001200949/)
Article
Jones, Christopher F.;
(2010)
A Landscape of Energy Abundance: Anthracite Coal Canals and the Roots of American Fossil Fuel Dependence, 1820--1860
(/isis/citation/CBB001021188/)
Review
Benjamin K. Sovacool;
(2016)
Review of "Coal and Empire: The Birth of Energy Security in Industrial America"
(/isis/citation/CBB725920453/)
Book
Fein, Michael R.;
(2008)
Paving the Way: New York Road Building and the American State, 1880--1956
(/isis/citation/CBB000953859/)
Book
Daniel French;
(2017)
When They Hid the Fire: A History of Electricity and Invisible Energy in America
(/isis/citation/CBB324123746/)
Article
Jones, Alan Victor;
(2006)
Towards Safer Working: The Hazards and the Risks of Introducing Electrical Equipment in British Coal Mines up to about 1930
(/isis/citation/CBB000700483/)
Thesis
Wu, Shellen Xiao;
(2010)
Underground Empires: German Imperialism and the Introduction of Geology in China, 1860--1919
(/isis/citation/CBB001567215/)
Book
Benjamin K. Sovacool;
(2013)
Energy & ethics: Justice and the global energy challenge
(/isis/citation/CBB433063028/)
Article
Ihor J. Bemko;
(2012)
The Oil Industry’s Unknown Founding Father: Dr. John Ellis and Valvoline
(/isis/citation/CBB167877974/)
Article
S. George Pemberton;
(2012)
John Joyce Carter (1842-1917): Civil War Hero & Petroleum Mogul
(/isis/citation/CBB731484837/)
Article
Mark Aldrich;
(January 2016)
Engineers Attack the "No. One Killer" in Coal Mining: The Bureau of Mines and the Promotion of Roof Bolting, 1947–1969
(/isis/citation/CBB912027193/)
Article
Hartman, Ian C.;
(2014)
West Virginia Mountaineers and Kentucky Frontiersmen: Race, Manliness, and the Rhetoric of Liberalism in the Early 1960s
(/isis/citation/CBB001550462/)
Book
Shellen Xiao Wu;
(2015)
Empires of Coal: Fueling China’s Entry into the Modern World Order, 1860-1920
(/isis/citation/CBB702604725/)
Book
Peter A. Shulman;
(2015)
Coal and Empire: The Birth of Energy Security in Industrial America
(/isis/citation/CBB501571492/)
Article
Cooke, Jason;
(2014)
Property as a Pillar of Oil-Based Capitalism: The Case of the Southern Pacific Company in Southern California, 1865--1926
(/isis/citation/CBB001451667/)
Book
Lamoreaux, Naomi R.;
Sokoloff, Kenneth Lee;
(2007)
Financing Innovation in the United States, 1870 to the Present
(/isis/citation/CBB000774188/)
Book
Pursell, Carroll W.;
(2007)
The Machine in America: A Social History of Technology
(/isis/citation/CBB000775212/)
Book
Wrigley, E. A.;
(2010)
Energy and the English Industrial Revolution
(/isis/citation/CBB001212255/)
Be the first to comment!