The fossil fuel revolution is usually rendered as a tale of historic advances in energy production. In this perspective-changing account, Christopher F. Jones instead tells a story of advances in energy access-canals, pipelines, and wires that delivered power in unprecedented quantities to cities and factories at a great distance from production sites. He shows that in the American mid-Atlantic region between 1820 and 1930, the construction of elaborate transportation networks for coal, oil, and electricity unlocked remarkable urban and industrial growth along the eastern seaboard. But this new transportation infrastructure did not simply satisfy existing consumer demand-it also whetted an appetite for more abundant and cheaper energy, setting the nation on a path toward fossil fuel dependence.

Between the War of 1812 and the Great Depression, low-cost energy supplied to cities through a burgeoning delivery system allowed factory workers to mass-produce goods on a scale previously unimagined. It also allowed people and products to be whisked up and down the East Coast at speeds unattainable in a country dependent on wood, water, and muscle. But an energy-intensive America did not benefit all its citizens equally. It provided cheap energy to some but not others; it channeled profits to financiers rather than laborers; and it concentrated environmental harms in rural areas rather than cities.

Today, those who wish to pioneer a more sustainable and egalitarian energy order can learn valuable lessons from this history of the nation's first steps toward dependence on fossil fuels.

About the Author
Christopher F. Jones is Assistant Professor of History in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies at Arizona State University.

Reviews
Working at the intersection of technological and environmental history, Jones shows that understanding political economy and social context are integral to understanding energy transitions. His elegantly written and cogently argued narrative of how Americans spent down the planetary savings account of solar energy amassed in fossil fuels is as compelling as a mystery novel. -- Ann Norton Greene * Journal of Interdisciplinary History *
Jones rethinks our understanding of the history of energy by examining from a new angle America's transformation from a society that is dependent on human and animal power to one that relies on fossil fuels and electrical power generation. By focusing on the history of energy infrastructure, Routes of Power demonstrates how this transformation occurred and, in doing so, provides a picture of America's energy history that is new, concrete, innovative, and persuasive. -- Martin V. Melosi, author of Atomic Age America
In Routes of Power, Jones investigates the economics, the social consequences, and the environmental costs of the transformation from muscle power to coal, oil, and electricity. His work demonstrates effectively that technological change is not automatic but requires human effort and ingenuity. -- David E. Nye, author of America's Assembly Line


Awards
Nominated for Pacific Coast Branch Book Award 2015 and Sidney Edelstein Prize 2015 and Ellis W. Hawley Prize 2015 and Merle Curti Award 2015 and OAH Frederick Jackson Turner Award 2015 and New-York Historical Society American History Book Prize 2014 and Ralph Gomory Prize 2015 and Pfizer Award 2015 and Kenneth Jackson Award 2014 and John H. Dunning Prize 2015 and Albert J. Beveridge Award 2015.



Book Information
ISBN 9780674970922
Author Christopher F. Jones
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Harvard University Press
Publisher Harvard University Press