Description
Book SynopsisThis important book tells the sweeping story of energy, tracing patterns of energy use in human history. Contextualizing global history through the lens of the Anthropocene, Brian Black traces the eras of industrialization, concluding with our current transition within the reality of climate change. Written by a leading scholar, this book is an essential contribution to environmental history and the rapidly emerging field of energy history.
Trade ReviewReviews/Endorsements:
[Reviews for his last book, Crude Reality:
This engaging and thought-provoking book directs readers’ attention to the vital role that
petroleum occupies in today’s global economy and geopolitical arena. Brian C. Black has done
a masterful job of explaining a complex topic. . . . His conclusions are hard to ignore; the
global society depends on fossil fuels at a time when the world’s peak production of petroleum
has likely already occurred. . . . Essential.” —Choice
“Stands out . . . for Black’s skillful incorporation of environmental and cultural history into
the more standard narratives focusing on the geopolitics of state and corporate development
of global oil resources. . . . Black also makes an important and highly original . . . contribution
by analyzing oil itself as a ‘critical actor, capable of shaping an entire way of life.’ . . . Regardless
of precisely how much oil may be left, though, Black’s insightful book demonstrates that other
‘crude realities’ like environmental damage and global warming will likely favor those nations
that move beyond oil and pioneer the cleaner alternative energy technologies of the future.”
—Journal of World History
“Black . . . has made a most valuable contribution with this long history of oil from the
classical world until today. The work is informative and useful, with a quantity of details
rarely to be found in a single work. . . . The book is well written and always clear and easy to
understand. It [makes] for worthwhile, fruitful reading enriched by many good photos.”
—Global Environmental Politics
“Not since Daniel Yergin’s book, The Prize, has there been a synthetic account that grapples so
thoroughly with the transformative effect of oil in world history. . . . Black . . . [provides] a . . . more
condensed and readable account with a bolder and clearer analytical framework that offers an
accessible entrée to the subject for non-experts of energy history and for scholars alike. . . . Black
crosses national borders and moves swiftly over 250 years of industry development to present
a story in which oil stars initially as ‘black goo’ but transforms over time with the aid of human
accomplices into a powerful actor that drastically alters the world’s climate.”
—Environmental History
