A History of Industrial Power in the U. S., 1780-1930

A History of Industrial Power in the U. S., 1780-1930

Author: Louis C. Hunter

Publisher: University of Virginia Press

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 732

ISBN-13: 9780813910444

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Traces the development of industrial steam power, explains important technological achievements, and looks at influential inventors, engine builders, and entrepreneurs


Reader's Guide to the History of Science

Reader's Guide to the History of Science

Author: Arne Hessenbruch

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-12-16

Total Pages: 965

ISBN-13: 1134262949

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The Reader's Guide to the History of Science looks at the literature of science in some 550 entries on individuals (Einstein), institutions and disciplines (Mathematics), general themes (Romantic Science) and central concepts (Paradigm and Fact). The history of science is construed widely to include the history of medicine and technology as is reflected in the range of disciplines from which the international team of 200 contributors are drawn.


A History of Energy Flows

A History of Energy Flows

Author: Anthony N. Penna

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-09-18

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 0429960743

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This book presents a global and historical perspective of energy flows during the last millennium. The search for sustainable energy is a key issue dominating today’s energy regime. This book details the historical evolution of energy, following the overlapping and slow flowing transitions from one regime to another. In doing so it seeks to provide insight into future energy transitions and the means of utilizing sustainable energy sources to reduce humanity’s fossil fuel footprint. The book begins with an examination of the earliest and most basic forms of energy use, namely, that of humans metabolizing food in order to work, with the first transition following the domestication and breeding of horses and other animals. The book also examines energy sources key to development during the industrialization and mechanization, such as wood and coal, as well as more recent sources, such as crude oil and nuclear energy. The book then assesses energy flows that are at the forefront of sustainability, by examining green sources, such as solar, wind power and hydropower. While it is easy to see energy flows in terms of “revolutions,” transitions have taken centuries to evolve, and transitions are never fully global, as, for example, wood remains the primary fuel source for cooking in much of the developing world. This book not only demonstrates the longevity of energy transitions but also discusses the possibility for reducing transition times when technological developments provide inexpensive and safe energy sources that can reduce the dependency on fossil fuels. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy transitions, sustainable energy and environmental and energy history.


Human Capital in History

Human Capital in History

Author: Leah Platt Boustan

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2014-11-05

Total Pages: 419

ISBN-13: 022616389X

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This volume honours the contributions Claudia Goldin has made to scholarship and teaching in economic history and labour economics. The chapters address some closely integrated issues: the role of human capital in the long-term development of the American economy, trends in fertility and marriage, and women's participation in economic change.


Consuming Power

Consuming Power

Author: David E. Nye

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1999-02-18

Total Pages: 498

ISBN-13: 0262261022

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Nye uses energy as a touchstone to examine the lives of ordinary people engaged in normal activities. How did the United States become the world's largest consumer of energy? David Nye shows that this is less a question about the development of technology than it is a question about the development of culture. In Consuming Power, Nye uses energy as a touchstone to examine the lives of ordinary people engaged in normal activities. He looks at how these activities changed as new energy systems were constructed, from colonial times to recent years. He also shows how, as Americans incorporated new machines and processes into their lives, they became ensnared in power systems that were not easily changed: they made choices about the conduct of their lives, and those choices accumulated to produce a consuming culture. Nye examines a sequence of large systems that acquired and then lost technological momentum over the course of American history, including water power, steam power, electricity, the internal-combustion engine, atomic power, and computerization. He shows how each system became part of a larger set of social constructions through its links to the home, the factory, and the city. The result is a social history of America as seen through the lens of energy consumption.


Energy in American History

Energy in American History

Author: Jeffrey B. Webb

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2024

Total Pages: 1015

ISBN-13:

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"Contextualizes and analyzes the key energy transitions in U.S. history and the central importance of energy production and consumption on the American environment and in American culture and politics"--


A History of Water Rights at Common Law

A History of Water Rights at Common Law

Author: Joshua Getzler

Publisher: Oxford Studies in Modern Legal

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 9780198265818

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Water resources were central to England's precocious economic development in the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, and then again in the industrial, transport, and urban revolutions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Each of these periods saw a great deal of legal conflict over water rights, often between domestic, agricultural, and manufacturing interests competing for access to flowing water. From 1750 the common-law courts developed a large but unstable body of legal doctrine, specifying strong property rights in flowing water attached to riparian possession, and also limited rights to surface and underground waters. The new water doctrines were built from older concepts of common goods and the natural rights of ownership, deriving from Roman and Civilian law, together with the English sources of Bracton and Blackstone. Water law is one of the most Romanesque parts of English law, demonstrating the extent to which Common and Civilian law have commingled. Water law stands as a refutation of the still-common belief that English and European law parted ways irreversibly in the twelfth century. Getzler also describes the economic as well as the legal history of water use from early times, and examines the classical problem of the relationship between law and economic development. He suggests that water law was shaped both by the impact of technological innovations and by economic ideology, but above all by legalism.


Energy Transitions

Energy Transitions

Author: Vaclav Smil

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2016-12-05

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13:

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This book provides a detailed, global examination of energy transitions, supplying a long-term historical perspective, an up-to-date assessment of recent and near-term advances in energy production technology and implementation, and an explanation of why efforts to limit global warming and to shift away from fossil fuels have been gradual. Based on the best international and national statistical sources, the second edition of Energy Transitions: Global and National Perspectives supplies an in-depth evaluation of how economies and nations around the world are striving to move away from traditional energy sources, the unfolding decarbonization process, and problems with intermittent energies and national transition plans. It supplies readers with a clear introduction to the basic properties of energy systems and key concepts of their appraisal, puts energy transition patterns in long-term historical perspective, and looks at the energy transition in eight of the world's leading economies. The last chapters focus on the advances in the decarbonization of the global energy supply and consider how the energy transition will continue in the coming decades. This fully updated and substantially expanded edition addresses the many new developments affecting energy supply, such as the recent expansion of hydraulic fracturing, oil price fluctuations, the Fukushima nuclear power plant catastrophe, advances in solar and wind generation, adoption of combined cycle gas turbines, and increased availability of electric cars. The coverage highlights the differences in the pace of transitions in various countries, thereby providing a complete and accurate picture of the current state of energy development in different parts of the world. The book serves as an invaluable resource for students as well as for anyone interested in a realistic appraisal of the current state of energy transitions in various nations and regions and the likely future development of the global energy supply.