Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewStephen Gross has written a magnum opus that will stand as a landmark publication not only in postwar German history, but also at the intersection of global economic and environmental history. It offers a fascinating and persuasive account of how an intersection of idiosyncratic regulatory thinking, and a powerful anti-nuclear movement, set Germany on a peculiar path or Sonderweg in energy politics and trapped the country on Europe's economic and political fault-line. * Harold James, Professor of History and International Affairs, Princeton University *
The shift to renewables changes modern society's energy base, possibly the most foundational decision we will take. With a topic grabbed from today's headlines and given meticulous historical analysis as it unfolded in Germany—a nation in the energy avant-garde, yet also still enmired in (Russian-supplied) fossil fuels—Gross delivers a scholarly coup. * Peter Baldwin, Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles *
Energy and Power shows that cheap oil and gas were not the only paths to a successful national economy. Instead, German leaders in the postwar era connected energy to security, social stability, and, intermittently, sustainability. In fascinating ways, Gross shows how a range of players—from green activists to unions to corporations— pursued Germany's ecological modernization. * Kate Brown, Thomas M. Siebel Distinguished Professor in the History of Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology *
Perhaps the timeliest book of the year: Stephen G. Gross centers energy history to provide a compelling new interpretation of postwar Germany. In a brilliant sweep, he takes the reader through West Germany's energy crises and transitions from the 1950s into the new millennium. Whoever wants to understand Germany's past and current energy predicaments will find answers in this field-changing book. * Astrid M. Eckert, Emory University *
These excellent volumes demonstrate that understanding West Germany's past can provide useful insights into contemporary Germany's economic and political predicament, and its eventual choices for the future. * The Survival *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Paradoxes of German Energy Part I: The Old Energy Paradigm Chapter 1: Energy Price Wars and the Battle for the Social Market Economy: The 1950s Chapter 2: The Coupling Paradigm: Conceptualizing West Germany's First Postwar Energy Transition Chapter 3: Chains of Oil, 1956-1973 Chapter 4: The Entrepreneurial State: The Nuclear Transition of the 1950s and 1960s Chapter 5: Shaking the Energy Paradigm: The 1973 Oil Shock and its Aftermath Part II: The New Energy Paradigm Chapter 6: Green Energy and the Remaking of West German Politics in the 1970s Chapter 7: Reinventing Energy Economics after the Oil Shock: The Rise of Ecological Modernization Chapter 8: Energetic Hopes in the Face of Chernobyl and Climate Change: The 1980s Chapter 9: The Energy Entanglement of Germany and Russia: Natural Gas, 1970-2000 Chapter 10: Unleashing Green Energy in an Era of Neoliberalism: The 1990s Coda: German Energy in the Twenty-First Century Acknowledgements Abbreviations and Archives Index
