In this episode, we will discuss energy, environment, and the origins of the American fossil fuel paradigm with Christopher Jones. Christopher is Assistant Professor of History at Arizona State University, and the author of Routes of Power: Energy and Modern America.
Routes of Power traces the pathways by which the American energy industry grew into a vast network of canals, pipelines, and wires crisscrossing the nation. This network fueled an explosion of urban and industrial growth and accelerating the speed at which goods and power moved from sites of extraction and production to sites of consumption. While cities on the Eastern seaboard benefited from cheap and abundant energy, rural regions of the mid-Atlantic suffered from the environmental costs of creating and maintaining the power infrastructure.
Christopher Jones was a 2008 to 2009 Dissertation Research Fellow at the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine.
Find this podcast and further resources on the Consortium's website at:
https://www.chstm.org/video/64
