Past and Present Energy Societies

Abundant, salutary, problematic - energy makes history. As a symbol, resource and consumer good, it shapes technologies, politics, societies and cultural world views. Focussing on a range of energy types, from electricity and oil to bioenergy, this volume analyzes the social, cultural and political concepts and discourses of energy and their implementation and materialization within technical systems, applications, media representations and consumer practice. By examining and connecting production, mediation and consumption aspects from an international and interdisciplinary perspective, the book offers an innovative view on how energy is imagined, discussed, staged and used.

Nina Möllers (PhD) is researcher at the Deutsches Museum (Munich) and curator of the Rachel Carson Center. Her research interests include Museum and Environmental Studies, History of Technology and the American South. Karin Zachmann (PhD) is Professor of History of Technology at the Technical University of Munich. She is known for her scholarship on engineering professions and technical education, history of consumption, and gender history.