Consuming Power: A Social History of American Energies

By David E. Nye

Book Overview

How did the United States become the world's largest consumer of energy? David Nye shows that this is less a question about the development of technology than it is a question about the development of culture. In Consuming Power Nye uses energy as a touchstone to examine the lives of ordinary people engaged in normal activities. He looks at how these activities changed as new energy systems were constructed, from colonial times to recent years. He also shows how, as Americans incorporated new machines and processes into their lives, they became ensnared in power systems that were not easily changed: they made choices about the conduct of their lives, and those choices accumulated to produce a consuming culture.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262140632
• ISBN13: 9780262140638
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Mit Pr
• Length: 331 Pages
• Weight: 2.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.0" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Turn On the Lights

This is a fabulous piece of social history -- deeply researched, insightful, and utterly lucid. It is among the best university-press books I can remember reading.

everyone in the energy field should read this

I thought this book was fascinating. I have been doing research on energy for a long time and this is one of the best books I have read. Nye examines the role that energy use has played in American society -- an important relationship that energy analysts have generally ignored. The book is very readable and well-researched, and always interesting.