Cara New Daggett, The Birth of Energy: Fossil Fuels, Thermodynamics, and the Politics of Work (Duke 2019)

This book explores the provocative claim that energy was “discovered” in the 1840s – not the thing itself, but the idea of it, or at least the Anglo-European idea of it, conjured in the shipyards of Glasgow, the boiler rooms of British steam ships, and the scientific discourses of thermodynamics. Daggett’s book does the very best thing that genealogical work can do, demonstrating that a thing taken for granted as an a priori, stable object is actually the outcome of dense networks of interests, knowledges and discourses, but not any less “real” for it. In this case, the historical reality of energy unfolds in the context of the onset of industrial production, the rise of fossil capitalism, the “discovery” of the laws of thermodynamics, the extension of imperial and colonial domination, the enslavement of racialized bodies, and the gendered politics of work. For those looking for an entrance to the critical energy humanities, this is a good place to start. - DB