Description
| Product ID: | 9781784781293 |
| Product Form: | Paperback / softback |
| Country of Manufacture: | GB |
| Title: | Fossil Capital |
| Subtitle: | The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming |
| Authors: | Author: Andreas Malm |
| Page Count: | 496 |
| Subjects: | Industrialisation and industrial history, Industrialisation & industrial history, Energy resources, Climate change, Alternative and renewable energy sources and technology, Energy resources, Climate change, Alternative & renewable energy sources & technology |
| Description: | Select Guide Rating How capitalism became caught up in the carbon-burning trap A sweeping study of how capitalism first promoted fossil fuels with the rise of steam power—and contributed to the worsening climate crisis The more we know about the catastrophic implications of climate change, the more fossil fuels we burn. How did we end up in this mess? In this masterful new history, Andreas Malm claims it all began in Britain with the rise of steam power. But why did manufacturers turn from traditional sources of power, notably water mills, to an engine fired by coal? Contrary to established views, steam offered neither cheaper nor more abundant energy—but rather superior control of subordinate labor. Animated by fossil fuels, capital could concentrate production at the most profitable sites and during the most convenient hours, as it continues to do today. Sweeping from nineteenth-century Manchester to the emissions explosion in China, from the original triumph of coal to the stalled shift to renewables, this study hones in on the burning heart of capital and demonstrates, in unprecedented depth, that turning down the heat will mean a radical overthrow of the current economic order. “The definitive deep history on how our economic system created the climate crisis. Superb, essential reading from one of the most original thinkers on the subject.” —Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine |
| Imprint Name: | Verso Books |
| Publisher Name: | Verso Books |
| Country of Publication: | GB |
| Publishing Date: | 2016-01-12 |
