Fuel: An Ecocritical History

Description

Fuel: An Ecocritical History is the first book to chart our changing attitudes to fuel and energy through the literature and culture of the modern era, focusing on the 18th-century to the present. Reading a wide range of writers from Blake, Austen and Dickens to Upton Sinclair and Edward Abbey, Heidi Scott explores how our move from a pre-industrial reliance on biomass and elemental energy sources to our current dependence on the fossil fuels of coal, oil and natural gas have fundamentally shaped human identity and culture. The book's Anthropocene perspective reshapes our view of energy history and climate change, and Fuel looks forward to ways in which we can reimagine our culture away from the fossil fuel paradigm towards a more sustainable energy future driven by renewable, elemental energy. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Dedication Contents Figures Acknowledgments 1 Introduction I New York City to Albany II Fuel history III Defining Fuel IV Energy ontology V The arc of Fuel Part One Biomass 2 Grass: Muscle Power I The country: The pastness of the pastoral II The city: Crosstown traffic III In depth: Black Beauty IV Borderline biomass: Peat and whale oil 3 Wood: Forests’ Fires I Burning to survive II The hospitable blaze III In depth: Jane Austen 4 Charcoal: Firing Early Industry I The collier II Selling charcoal III Blow it up: Gunpowder and fireworks Part Two Fossil Fuels 5 King Coal I Workhouse workhorse II The Big Smoke and Auld Reekie III In depth: Wuthering Heights and How Green Was My Valley IV Do the locomotion V Horizon gone: Mountaintop removal mining 6 Black Gold I Oil ontology II Gusher gawkers III Road trip! IV Oil’s locales V Pastoral oilfields: The suburbs VI A note on natural gas 7 Interlude: Human Food Part Three Primary Energy 8 Renewables: The Elements Move I Breeze II Flow III Star IV Atom 9 Conclusion Bibliography Index