History 155b: The United States of Energy—
Power, Labor, and Technology in American History
Classroom: Olin-Sang 116
Tues/ Thursday, 3:30-4:50
Instructor: Philip Wight
E-mail: Pwight@Brandeis.edu
Office Hours: Monday, 12-2pm, Rabb 360
Early percussion rigs drilling in Pennsylvania, late 1800s (Office of Fossil Energy, Dept of Energy)
“There is no substitute for energy. The whole edifice of modern society is built upon it...it is
not ‘just another commodity’ but the precondition for all commodities, a basic factor equal
with air, water, and earth.”
-E.F. Schumacher, Energy International, September 1964
“Americans were the first people to become mass producers and mass consumers of oil, the
most powerful fuel and versatile substance ever discovered.”
-Tyler Priest, “The Dilemmas of Oil Empire,” Journal of American History, 2012
“All power, social as well as physical, derives from energy…History is largely the story of
the capture, transformation, and application of this solar energy.”
-Edmund Russell et al., “The Nature of Power: Synthesizing the History of Technology and
Environmental History,” Technology and Culture, 2011
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Course Description
A typical American history course covers the canals, railroads, steamships, factories, and
automobiles that unified the nation and created our modern patterns of labor, life, and leisure.
Yet, the actual sources of energy behind these impressive innovations are most often overlooked.
The ownership, extraction, transportation, and consumption of crucial energy sources—wood,
animals, wind, water, coal, oil, and natural gas—are too-often an after-thought for historians and
citizens alike. A central shortcoming of American historical inquiry reflects a prevalent
assumption in modern society—that a steady flow of abundant energy is assumed. We demand
continuous and cheap energy as a basic constituent of modern life; paradoxically, citizens seldom
think about the energy inputs required for our enormous prosperity. The current wealth of energy
makes its centrality invisible. We typically focus on energy use only in times of crisis. This
course aims to redress that oversight—an oversight that is proving to be problematic for
contemporary society. Understanding America’s energy flows is central to a vital conception of
the nation’s past, present, and future. “The United States of Energy” focuses on these energy
flows and infrastructures—the material constitution— that underwrote the history of American
civilization.
This upper-level undergraduate course will focus on the relationship between American
history and energy. Combining environmental, social, and material histories, this course aims to
look not only at the macroeconomic forces that shaped energy history, but also how new energy
sources transformed people’s daily lives and lived experiences—from the emancipation of
slaves, to urban living and factory work, to suburbanization and white collar jobs. The class also
intends to highlight how social ideas of energy, “progress”, “freedom” and the “public good”
shaped consumption and infrastructures like highways, housing, and public transit.
Learning Goals
By the conclusion of this course, students will have broadened and deepened their knowledge of
American history by understanding the vital role that energy played in the nation’s development.
They will learn about the different phases of American energy history, and the dynamics of these
transitions. Participants will have analyzed the course themes and questions (see below) and have
a clear idea of how the nation arrived at the present in respect to energy and the environment.
They will understand the evolution and path dependence of contemporary energy regimes.
Finally, students will have improved their ability to construct arguments and write persuasively.
Course Themes
* Liberation and Dependence
* Crisis and Continuity
* Interplay of Supply and Demand
* Energy and Economic Growth
* The Invisible Fuel: Efficiency
* Energy Infrastructures and Path Dependence
* Economic Externalities (carbon pollution, soot, ect.)
* Relationship between Energy and the idea of “Freedom”
* Accretion and Obsolescence in Energy Transitions
* Behavior vs. Technology in Energy Efficiency
Central Course Questions
What is the difference (and relationship) between energy and power?
How have Americans (and humanity) historically utilized various energy sources?
What is the relationship between energy and everyday life?
Do energy resources exert their own agency or power, or is that power socially constructed?
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How have energy transformations occurred throughout U.S. history?
How does the flow, delivery, and ownership of energy sources (via transportation infrastructures)
affect society? How do these infrastructures create “path dependence”?
Does a growth in energy correspond to an increase in living standards, wealth, and health?
How do certain forms of energy condition specific kinds of public and private life?
What is the relationship between the “American Dream” and cheap energy?
How do these ideas inform the political debates over energy and the environment?
Does climate change challenge contemporary notions of progress, modernity, and democracy?
What does the history of past energy transitions suggest for the de-carbonization of the
economy?
Student Participation and Expectations
Students are expected to maintain full attendance, and actively contribute to each class’s
discussion. Students should come to class having completed and contemplated the assigned
readings, ready for discussion. Generally, for each hour of class, students will have 3 hours of athome reading. Each student will be asked to begin a class discussion once or twice. Participation
will also be gauged by a ~2-page response paper or source exercise (6 total, top 5 counted).
Attendance/ class participation, and response papers/ source exercises constitute 25% of each
student’s grade. 4 Credit Hour Course.
As participation is central to success in this class, attendance is mandatory. Any unexcused
absences beyond the first may result in a significant markdown of a student’s participation score.
Grades
Participation and Reading Summaries
Research Paper
Mid-Term Exam
Final Exam
25%
35%
20%
20%
Research Paper
Students will write a 12-14 page research paper on a topic of their choice (and approved by the
instructor) relating to American energy history. They will submit a preliminary research proposal
in early-March (included in the final paper grade). An outline detailing argument, structure, and
sources is due at the end of March. Students should use the Chicago Manual of Style for all
citations. Students are also encouraged to consult the writing center for help with their papers.
Students are also required to meet with the instructor at least once for a “writing conference” to
edit and discuss their papers. Research papers constitute 35% of students’ grades.
Accommodations
If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis and wish to have a
reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please see Beth Rodgers-Kay (the
Director of Disabilities Services) or me right away. Please note that accommodations cannot be
made retroactively.
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Academic Honesty
You are expected to be honest in all your academic work. Plagiarism or cheating of any kind will not be
tolerated. When in doubt, cite your source! The University policy on academic honesty is distributed
annually as section 5 of the Rights and Responsibilities handbook. Instances of alleged dishonesty will
be forwarded to the Office of Campus Life for possible referral to the Student Judicial System. Potential
sanctions include failure in the course and suspension from the University. If you have any questions
about my expectations, please ask.
Required Texts
Required Books, at campus bookstore; all other readings will be provided as PDFs on LATTE.
► Christopher F. Jones, Routes of Power: Energy and Modern America. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 2014.
► Thomas Andrews, Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War. Cambridge, MA.
Harvard University Press, 2008.
► Alexis Madrigal, Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology.
Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2011.
► Richard White, The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River. New York: Hill
and Wang, 1995
► DENOTES ASSINGED READING
Week One: A “Big History” of Energy
January 14th: Introductions
► No reading
January 19th: The Cosmological Origins of Energy
► Richard White, The Organic Machine, Introduction and Chapter 1 (pp ix-29)
► Russell, et al. “The Nature of Power: Synthesizing the History of Technology and
Environmental History,” Technology and Culture [LATTE]
***Source Exercise #1 Due**
Week Two: The Organic Energy Regime
January 21st: Native Americans and Agrarian America
► Chapter four, “Fire”, in Stephen Krech III’s The Ecological Indian: Myth and History (New
York: W.W. Norton, 1999) [LATTE]
► Excerpts from Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia [LATTE]
► Excerpt from America’s Wooden Age, Brooke Hindle ed., 1975 [LATTE]
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January 26th: The Waltham-Lowell System and the Birth of American Industrialization
► Ted Steinberg, Nature Incorporated: Industrialization and the Waters of New England (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1991), Chapter 1 (pp 21- 49) [LATTE]
► Chad Montrie, “ ‘I think less of the factory than of my native dell:’ Labor, Nature, and the
Lowell ‘Mill Girls’” Environmental History 9:2 (April 2004), 275-295
► Madrigal, Powering the Dream, pp 17-29
**Visit Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation**
154 Moody Street in Waltham (intersection of Moody and the Charles River) (DETAILS TBD)
**Source Exercise #2 Due**
Week Three: Energy Slaves
January 28th: Mineral Energies
► Intro, Chapter 1 and 2 (pp23- 87) in Jones, Routes of Power: Energy and Modern America
► Ryan Tucker Jones, “Running into Whales: A History of the North Pacific from below the
Waves,” American Historical Review [LATTE]
February 2nd: Slavery as an Energy-Economic System
► Excerpt from Ira Berlin’s Many Thousands Gone [LATTE]
► Jean-François Mouhot. “Past Connections and Present Similarities in Slave Ownership and
Fossil Fuel Usage." Climatic Change 105, no. 1 (2011): 329-55. [LATTE]
Week Four: Coalfields of Empire
February 4th: Winning the West by Rail, Steam, and Wind
► Madrigal, Powering the Dream, pp. 33-47
► Andrews, Killing for Coal , Introduction, Ch 1-2 (p 1-86)
Feb 9th Labor, Capital, and the Coalfield Wars
► Read Andrews, Killing for Coal, Ch 3-7 (p 87-233)
Week Five: Carboniferous Capitalism
February 11th: The Dissolution of “A Whole Way of Life”
► Read “Movable Feast,” (Ch. 11) in Steinberg, Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American
History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008) [LATTE]
► White, The Organic Machine, 30-48
(Feb 15th-19th: No Classes—‘Spring’ Recess)
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February 23rd: In Trusts we Trust? The Rise of Centralized Carbon
► U.S. v. EC Knight Co (1895) Supreme Court Case [LATTE]
► Excerpt from Ida Tarbell’s History of the Standard Oil Company [LATTE]
► Jones, Routes of Power, Ch. 3-4 (pp. 89-159)
**Source Exercise #3 Due**
Week Six: Progressivism and a New “Public Good”
February 25th: Electrified America
► Jones, Powering the Dream, Chapter 5 (pp 161-194)
► David E. Nye’s Electrifying America: The Social Meanings of a New Technology (Cambridge
MA: MIT Press, 1992) [LATTE]
March 1st: The Emergence of Mass Personal Mobility
► Madrigal, Powering the Dream, Chapters 7-10
► James Longhurt, Bikes Battles: A History of the American Road, Intro and Ch. 1 [LATTE]
**Source Exercise #4 Due**
Week Seven: Conserving the Future, Consuming the Past
Thursday March 3rd: Public Hydroelectricity and Its Critics
► Excerpts from Lewis Mumford, Technics and Civilization (1933) [LATTE]
► White, The Organic Machine, 48-81
► Read Jones, Routes of Power, Chapters 6 (pp 195-226)
**Research Paper Topics Due**
Tuesday March 8th: *** MIDTERM EXAM*** (in class)
Week Eight: The Great Acceleration
March 10th: World War II and the Birth of the Atomic Era
► Edward Teller, Energy from Heaven and Earth, Ch 8-10 (pp 136-198) [LATTE]
►White, The Organic Machine, 81-88
March 15th: Gods and Jeremiahs: Debating the “American Way of Life”
► William Vogt, The Road to Survival (1948) [LATTE]
► Ralph Wallace’s “The Proven Merits of a Solar Home,” Reader’s Digest 44 (Jan. 1944)
[LATTE]
► Madrigal, Powering the Dream, Chapter 12
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Week Nine: Environmentalism
March 17th: Consumerism, Pesticides, Fallout
► David and Richard Stradling, “Perceptions of the Burning River: Deindustrialization and
Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River,” Environmental History, 2008 [LATTE]
► Excerpts from Barry Commoner, The Closing Circle [LATTE]
March 22nd: When Renewable Technology Turned “Green” [AT]
► E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful, Chapter 5 [LATTE]
► Madrigal, Powering the Dream, Chapters 13-20
**Source Exercise #5 Due**
Week Ten: The Oil Crises
March 24th, The Trans-Alaska Pipeline Controversy
► Daniel Yergin, excerpts from The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Power, and Money [LATTE]
► Read Amory B. Lovin’s “Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?” Foreign Affairs, October
1976 [LATTE]
► Ivan Illich, “Energy and Equity” [LATTE]
**Essay Outlines Due**
(March 25th-28th No Classes: March Recess)
March 29th: “America’s Crisis of Confidence”
► Langdon Winner, “Building a Better Mouse Trap” in The Whale and the Reactor (1986)
[LATTE]
► Excerpt from Kevin Mattson, What the Heck Are You Up to Mr. President? [LATTE]
Week Eleven: The Age of Reagan
March 21st: “Morning in America”
► “Message to the Congress Transmitting the National Energy Policy Plan, July 17th, 1981”
[LATTE]
► “Introduction”, in Julian Simon, The Ultimate Resource (1981) [LATTE]
► Richard Conniff, “The Political History of Cap and Trade” Smithsonian Magazine [LATTE]
April 5th: Global Warming and the “Anthropocene”
► Excerpt from Naomi Oreskes, Merchants of Doubt [LATTE]
► White, The Organic Machine, Ch 4 (pp 89-113)
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Week Twelve: Environmental Externalities
April 7th: Peak Oil or Peak Sinks?
►Tyler Priest, “Hubbert’s Peak: The Great Debate over the End of Oil.” Historical Studies in
the Natural Sciences 44, no. 1 (February 1, 2014): 37–79. [LATTE]
►Bill McKibben’s “The Terrifying New Math of Climate Change,” Rolling Stone (July, 2011)
[LATTE]
April 12th: The Frac’ing “Revolution”
► Daniel Yergin, “The Global Impact of U.S. Shale” Project-Syndicate (2014) [LATTE]
► US Energy Agency Yearly Summaries, 2009-2013 [LATTE]
► “Inside the War on Coal”, Politico [LATTE]
**Source exercise #6**
Week Thirteen: Disruption
25) Thursday April 14th The Rise of Renewables?
► Madrigal, Powering the Dream, Chapters 21-26 (pp 201-273)
► Christian Parenti, “A Radical Approach to the Climate Crisis”, Dissent [LATTE]
► Excerpt from Deep Green Resistance: A Strategy to Save the Planet (2011)
26) Tuesday April 19th From Copenhagen to Paris
► Jones, Routes of Power, conclusion
► Madrigal, Powering the Dream, Ch 27 (274-288)
► Excerpt from Wen Stephenson, What We’re Fighting for Now is Each Other: Dispatches
from the Front Lines of Climate Justice (2015) [LATTE]
(April 22nd-29th No Classes: Passover and Spring Recess)
**Research Papers Due: Friday April 22ndst**
FINAL EXAM: May 11th, 6-9 PM (Tentative date)
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