The energy of slaves oil and the new servitude

Nikiforuk, Andrew 1955- (Author).

Summary: By the winner of the Rachel Carson Environment Book AwardAncient civilizations relied on shackled human muscle. It took the energy of slaves to plant crops, clothe emperors, and build cities. Nineteenth-century slaveholders viewed critics as hostilely as oil companies and governments now regard environmentalists. Yet the abolition movement had an invisible ally: coal and oil. As the world's most versatile workers, fossil fuels replenished slavery's ranks with combustion engines and other labor-saving tools. Since then, cheap oil has transformed politics, economics, science, agriculture, and ev.

Record details

ISBN: 9781553659792 (electronic bk.)
ISBN: 1553659791 (electronic bk.)
Physical Description: electronic resource
remote
1 online resource (296 p.)
Publisher: Vancouver, BC : Greystone Books, 2012.

Content descriptions

General Note:	Description based upon print version of record.
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Prologue -- 1. The energy of slaves -- 2. Slaves to energy -- 3. The oil pioneer -- 4. The new servitude -- 5. The unsettling of agriculture -- 6. The Viagra of the species -- 7. The urban fire -- 8. The economist's delusion -- 9. Peak science -- 10. The petrostate -- 11. The surplus devolution -- 12. Oil and happiness -- 13. Japan and the fragility of the petroleum age -- Epilogue.