The fossil fuel revolution is usually rendered as a tale of historic advances in energy production. In this perspective-changing account, Christopher F. Jones instead tells a story of advances in energy access--canals, pipelines, and wires that delivered power in unprecedented quantities to cities and factories at a great distance from production sites. He shows that in the American mid-Atlantic region between 1820 and 1930, the construction of elaborate transportation networks for coal, oil, and electricity unlocked remarkable urban and industrial growth along the eastern seaboard. But this new transportation infrastructure did not simply satisfy existing consumer demand--it also whetted an appetite for more abundant and cheaper energy, setting the nation on a path toward fossil fuel dependence. Between the War of 1812 and the Great Depression, low-cost energy supplied to cities through a burgeoning delivery system allowed factory workers to mass-produce goods on a scale previously unimagined. It also allowed people and products to be whisked up and down the East Coast at speeds unattainable in a country dependent on wood, water, and muscle. But an energy-intensive America did not benefit all its citizens equally. It provided cheap energy to some but not others; it channeled profits to financiers rather than laborers; and it concentrated environmental harms in rural areas rather than cities. Today, those who wish to pioneer a more sustainable and egalitarian energy order can learn valuable lessons from this history of the nation's first steps toward dependence on fossil fuels.
...MoreReview Jeremy Vetter (2016) Review of "Routes of Power: Energy and Modern America". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 197-198).
Review Ernest Freeberg (2015) Review of "Routes of Power: Energy and Modern America". Journal of American History (pp. 1283-1284).
Similar Citations
Book
Brian Phillips Murphy;
(2015)
Building the Empire State: Political Economy in the Early Republic
(/isis/citation/CBB610727332/)
Chapter
Helena Ekerholm;
(2012)
Cultural Meanings of Wood Gas as Automobile Fuel in Sweden, 1930-1945
(/isis/citation/CBB951542006/)
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/)
Article
Jones, Christopher F.;
(2013)
Building More Just Energy Infrastructure: Lessons from the Past
(/isis/citation/CBB001320574/)
Book
Rose, Mark H.;
Seely, Bruce Edsall;
Barrett, Paul F.;
(2006)
The Best Transportation System in the World: Railroads, Trucks, Airlines, and American Public Policy in the Twentieth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB000772764/)
Book
Bob Johnson;
(2014)
Carbon Nation: Fossil Fuels in the Making of American Culture
(/isis/citation/CBB588391997/)
Book
Robert James Kapsch;
(2013)
Over the Alleghenies: Early canals and railroads of Pennsylvania
(/isis/citation/CBB650042571/)
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/)
Book
Ryan Dearinger;
(2015)
The Filth of Progress: Immigrants, Americans, and the Building of Canals and Railroads in the West
(/isis/citation/CBB156700263/)
Article
Victor Seow;
(December 2018)
The Metabolism of Modern Migration
(/isis/citation/CBB915286515/)
Book
Ian Derbyshire;
(2022)
Railways' Economic Impact on Uttar Pradesh and Colonial North India (1860-1914): The Iron Raj
(/isis/citation/CBB740471115/)
Article
Kowalczyk, Rafal;
(2009)
Economic Aspects of the Development of the Railway System in the Kingdom of Poland Until 1914
(/isis/citation/CBB000932721/)
Thesis
Zhou, Fang;
(2010)
The Wheels That Transformed the City: The Historical Development of Public Transportation Systems in Shanghai, 1843--1937
(/isis/citation/CBB001567173/)
Article
Pieter De Graef;
(August 2018)
The fruits of better roads and waterways: Facilitating fertiliser improvement through transport innovations in 18th-century Flemish Husbandry
(/isis/citation/CBB281755742/)
Book
Steel, Frances;
(2011)
Oceania under Steam: Sea Transport and the Cultures of Colonialism, c. 1870--1914
(/isis/citation/CBB001200612/)
Article
Carroll Pursell;
(2011)
The American Patent Agency: The Embedded 'Lone Inventor' in American History
(/isis/citation/CBB562500065/)
Book
Brian P. Luskey;
(2015)
Capitalism by Gaslight: Illuminating the Economy of Nineteenth-Century America
(/isis/citation/CBB807053616/)
Book
Rees, Jonathan;
(2013)
Industrialization and the Transformation of American Life: A Brief Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB001421332/)
Book
E. van der Vleuten;
P. Högselius;
A. Hommels;
A. Kaijser;
Erik van der Vleuten;
(2013)
The Making of Europe's Critical Infrastructure: Common Connections and Shared Vulnerabilities
(/isis/citation/CBB085424881/)
Book
Peter A. Shulman;
(2015)
Coal and Empire: The Birth of Energy Security in Industrial America
(/isis/citation/CBB501571492/)
Be the first to comment!