Book ID: CBB203971589

Fossil capital: The rise of steam-power and the roots of global warming (2016)

unapi

Malm, Andreas (Author)


Verso


Publication Date: 2016
Physical Details: 488
Language: English

How capitalism first promoted fossil fuels with the rise of steam power The more we debate about the catastrophic implications of climate change, the more fossil fuels we continue to burn. How did we get caught up in this mess? In this masterful new history, Malm claims that it all began in Britain with the rise of steam power. So why did manufacturers turn from traditional fuels, notably water, to steam? Overturning established theories of the transition and offering a radically new view of our warming world, this study shows how steam was adopted as a superior source of power. Two centuries later, the inheritors of that power continue to profit from "business as usual," as the world heads toward irreversible catastrophe. Malm examines the history of resistance to fossil fuels and surveys the obstacles to the transition to renewable energy so urgently needed today. Then as now, energy choices are determined in struggles over power.

...More
Reviewed By

Review Brian Black (2017) Review of "Fossil capital: The rise of steam-power and the roots of global warming". Environmental History (pp. 551-552). unapi

Review Quivik, Fredric (July 2017) Review of "Fossil capital: The rise of steam-power and the roots of global warming". Technology and Culture (pp. 866-888). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB203971589/

Similar Citations

Review Quivik, Fredric; (July 2017)
Review of "Fossil capital: The rise of steam-power and the roots of global warming" (/isis/citation/CBB074426940/)

Book Paul Murray Thompson; (2015)
Matthew Murray (1765–1826) and the Firm of Fenton Murray and Co. (1795–1844) (/isis/citation/CBB509763832/)

Article Luis Aurelio González Prieto; Pelayo González-Pumariega Solís; David González Palomares; (2022)
La transferencia a España de los conocimientos técnicos sobre el desazufrado del carbón de piedra y la obtención de coques y breas hasta 1790 (/isis/citation/CBB308364824/)

Article David Philip Miller; (October 2020)
A New Perspective on the Natural Philosophy of Steams and Its Relation to the Steam Engine (/isis/citation/CBB079253594/)

Article Peter King; (2017)
George Sparrow, Coalmaster, and Early Steam Engines (/isis/citation/CBB332181979/)

Article Coverdale, Tony; (2017)
The Ingenious Mr. Padmore: Eighteenth-century Polymath (/isis/citation/CBB912081467/)

Article John Kanefsky; (2017)
Newcomen Engines Before Watt: A Quantitative Assessment (/isis/citation/CBB436820871/)

Article Victoria Owens; (2017)
James Brindley’s Steam Engines, 1756–59 (/isis/citation/CBB338274295/)

Article James Greener; (2017)
The ‘Fourth’ engine: Austhorpe, 1714? (/isis/citation/CBB101710419/)

Article Thomas R. Anderson; Ed Hawkins; Philip D. Jones; (2016)
CO2, the Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming: From the Pioneering Work of Arrhenius and Callendar to Today's Earth System Models (/isis/citation/CBB797925933/)

Book Sebastian Vincent Grevsmühl; (2014)
La terre vue d'en haut: l'invention de l'environnement global (/isis/citation/CBB627109514/)

Article Hodge, M. J. S.; (2009)
Capitalist Contexts for Darwinian Theory: Land, Finance, Industry and Empire (/isis/citation/CBB000932221/)

Article Nuvolari, Alessandro; Frenken, Koen; (2004)
The early development of the steam engine: An evolutionary interpretation using complexity theory (/isis/citation/CBB001180620/)

Book William T. Vollmann; (2018)
Carbon Ideologies: Volume II, No Good Alternative (/isis/citation/CBB061794518/)

Article Thomas Turnbull; (2021)
Energy, history, and the humanities: against a new determinism (/isis/citation/CBB868406334/)

Article Steve Grudgings; David Perrett; (2017)
Editorial: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference Early Engines Conference - Part 1 (/isis/citation/CBB981074426/)

Book Allen, Robert C.; (2009)
The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective (/isis/citation/CBB001230660/)

Authors & Contributors
Nuvolari, Alessandro
González-Palomares, David
Greener, James
Turnbull, Thomas
Quivik, Fredric
Miller, David Philip
Concepts
Industrial revolution
Steam Engines
Coal
Climate change
Capitalism
Technological innovation
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
20th century
21st century
Places
Great Britain
Bristol (England)
Staffordshire (England)
England
Spain
Germany
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment