Barry Lord

Very interesting thesis. Thinking about culture and art through the energy sources—starting with fire, water, wood, coal, oil, gas, solar, etc a shift in how we understand “progress” and the flow of history documented almost subconsciously by the culture and art created. As a provocative example: slavery, the energy produced by humans only really took off in regions for which it was the cheapest energy source. So Northern Europe, which did not lend itself to large plantations or growing seasons never had a large endlaved population. And the only reason it started to fall away was the advent of the Industrial Revolution being cheap energy in the form of coal, steam, etc. not our advancing moral progress, alas, just the smarter cheaper option. Sigh. So that’s depressing.
Overall I did not love the college textbook feel of the writing and some of the claims seemed overly strong and presumptive, but the larger themes were interesting to contemplate.… (meer)