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cameroncl's review
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Absolutely fascinating. Malm takes a Marxian lens to the British transition to steampower (and the genesis of self-sustaining economic growth contingent on the consumption of fossil fuels), and finds significant holes in the conventional explanations for the rise of coal. Rather than resource scarcity or economic efficiency, Malm sees the rise of coal as a consequence of its spatial and temporal advantages to water power, which was both abundant and much cheaper, in a capitalist economy: you don't have to overcome coordination problems to exploit coal power, and its regularity and dissociation from a specific place is more conducive to the kind of labour control that early industrial capitalism was building.
The twelfth chapter, where all the threads of the adoption of coal/steam are fully synthesized, was an absolute tour de force. One of the most original and interesting works of history I've ever read. And, unlike most Marxian history, the prose was incredibly readable.
The twelfth chapter, where all the threads of the adoption of coal/steam are fully synthesized, was an absolute tour de force. One of the most original and interesting works of history I've ever read. And, unlike most Marxian history, the prose was incredibly readable.
rowtuh's review
4.0
This is a quite extensive, specific treatise, mostly on history regarding the transition from water to steam, and in parts how this can apply to the renewable energy conversation.
It describes matters such as: The relationship of labor to law; The constraints of locality on non steam power; The value of an industrious and disposable worker; Certain idiosyncrasies such as that of a drought.
I'm rating the first half of this book, which is excellent; around the middle, it transitions from a specific, insightful, well-researched history. It becomes something of a politically incoherent, pseudo-mathematical analysis. The statistics it provides before then are excellent, and based in knowledge drawn from a wide variety of sources. Thereafter, I didn't get much out of the book, save perhaps the final (8-page) chapter. You should go somewhere else for your theory.
It describes matters such as: The relationship of labor to law; The constraints of locality on non steam power; The value of an industrious and disposable worker; Certain idiosyncrasies such as that of a drought.
I'm rating the first half of this book, which is excellent; around the middle, it transitions from a specific, insightful, well-researched history. It becomes something of a politically incoherent, pseudo-mathematical analysis. The statistics it provides before then are excellent, and based in knowledge drawn from a wide variety of sources. Thereafter, I didn't get much out of the book, save perhaps the final (8-page) chapter. You should go somewhere else for your theory.