What is it about?
A review for The Political Quarterly of two books about energy and the oil industry, 'Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil, by Timothy Mitchell and The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World, by Daniel Yergin. They analyse the effects of energy sources on social and political structures, particularly the huge change wrought by the transition from wood to coal to oil to electricity.
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Why is it important?
Energy resources lie at the heart of human civilisation, and many of our current problems - especially climate change - are determined by them.
Perspectives
I found Mitchell's book particularly enlightening about the history of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East in general.
Mr Richard John Pountain
Dennis Publishing
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil, The Political Quarterly, January 2013, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-923x.2013.2424_10.x.
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