Description
Book SynopsisThe fascinating history of how coal-based energy became entangled with American security.
Since the early twentieth century, Americans have associated oil with national security. From World War I to American involvement in the Middle East, this connection has seemed a self-evident truth. But, as Peter A. Shulman argues, Americans had to learn to think about the geopolitics of energy in terms of security, and they did so beginning in the nineteenth century: the age of coal. Coal and Empire insightfully weaves together pivotal moments in the history of science and technology by linking coal and steam to the realms of foreign relations, navy logistics, and American politics. Long before oil, coal allowed Americans to rethink the place of the United States in the world.
Shulman explores how the development of coal-fired oceangoing steam power in the 1840s created new questions, opportunities, and problems for U.S. foreign relations and naval strategy. The searc
Trade Review
Exciting to read. It is the product of someone who is such a gifted writer. New Books in Science, Technology, and Society Peter Shulman's excellent new book mines the pre-history of the relationship between ideas about energy extraction and the building of the United States as an imperial nation. Explorations in Federal History ... Coal and Empire is a major contribution to foreign policy history and an essential read for any scholar interested in the development of policy and technology during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. H-Net Reviews Enlightening reading for anyone interested in the politics and economics of energy. Choice In his exhaustively researched book, Shulman convincingly argues for the centrality of coal to nineteenth-century American domestic and foreign policy, pointing out that 'when seen from the perspective of coal, the great process of industrialization and the emergence of the United States as a global power unfolded at the same time as intertwined processes'... His fast paced and wide-ranging work recounts a number of fascinating episodes central to nineteenth-century American history through the lens of energy needs. Diplomatic History ...[Shulman's] rich text provides a vital contribution to our understanding of how resource exploitation--and hence science and technological change--was woven into the history of economics, international affairs, and domestic politics. Journal of American History Peter A. Shulman's Coal and Empire: The Birth of Energy Security in Industrial America offers an intellectual feast for both historians and modern energy scholars. Meticulously researched and expertly written, it attempts to show how an energy fuel, in this instance coal, became an integral part of United States national security in the nineteenth century. Technology and Culture A forceful book--well-written, eye-opening, and analytically sharp...Coal and Empire is essential reading for anyone interested in the deep roots of the modern fossil economy. American Historical Review Regardless of where you stand on the nineteenth-century US imperial question, the resources, technology, and politics behind expanding US interests have long needed the careful treatment Coal and Empire provides. Historical Geography ... the book is an important one, and the histories of more quotidian commodities need more attention more generally. By using coal as a lens Shulman shows its integral place across US history and the development of its global role into the twentieth century. Mariner's Mirror
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Empire and the Politics of Information
2. Engineering Economy
3. The Economy of Time and Space
4. The Slavery Solution
5. The Debate over Coaling Station
6. Inventing Logistics
Conclusion
Chronological Listing of Cited Congressional Publicationsfrom the United States Serial Set
Notes
Bibliographic Essay
Index
