Fossil Capital, Andreas Malm
Fossil Capital, Andreas Malm
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

Fossil Capital
The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming

Author: Andreas Malm

Narrator: Liam Gerrard

Unabridged: 18 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/18/2020


Synopsis

How capitalism first promoted fossil fuels with the rise of steam power

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.

About Andreas Malm

Andreas Malm teaches human ecology at Lund University, Sweden. He is coauthor, with Shora Esmailian, of Iran on the Brink: Rising Workers and Threats of War, and of Fossil Capital, which won the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Gautam

In a narrow sense a history of coal, but in a broader sense, a history of capitalism. Malm shows that the major reason for the shift within the British cotton manufacturing industry in the early 19th century, from water power to steam power (and which then laid the base for the fossil economy) was n......more

Goodreads review by Sara

Caution: fossil history trap [Through my ratings, reviews and edits I'm providing intellectual property and labor to Amazon.com Inc., listed on Nasdaq, which fully owns Goodreads.com and in 2014 posted revenues for $90 billion and a $271 million loss. Intellectual property and labor require compen......more