Energy, history, and the humanities: against a new determinism

Abstract

The study of past ‘energy transitions’ are being reinterpreted as possible guides to a low-carbon future. But little is known about the historians who shaped how we understand our transition into a predominantly hydrocarbon-based energy system. Before energy history emerged as a subfield, historians John Nef, Edward Wrigley, and Rolf Sieferle already explained the Industrial Revolution as a result of coal use. In unleashing industrialism, they argued that coal took on an historically decisive role. These notions of energy determinism will be the central concern of this paper. In revisiting their lives and work, it will be argued that in pursuit of a low-carbon future, we should not ignore the grave concerns posed by fossil energy use nor slip into a crude form of energy determinism.