Consuming Power: A Social History of American Energies

by David E. Nye

Book Overview

Nye uses energy as a touchstone to examine the lives of ordinary people engaged in normal activities.

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262640384
• ISBN13: 9780262640381
• Release Date: February 1999
• Publisher: MIT Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.27 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

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.