The Rise and Fall of King Coal: American Energy Transitions in an Age of Markets, 1800-1940

by Mark Aldrich

Overview

A history of the dynamic role of coal in the energy landscape of the United States during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

In The Rise and Fall of King Coal, Mark Aldrich explores the pivotal role of coal in the historical energy landscape of the United States. Meticulously researched and clearly written, this analysis of the rise, dominance, and eventual decline of coal as a primary fuel source traces its evolution from the late eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. 

Aldrich explains the factors that contributed to coal's ascendancy and decline, including efficiency, marketing, and the technological advancements that facilitated both its widespread adoption and later languishing. A complex interplay among market forces, government policies, and societal attitudes profoundly shaped the coal industry's trajectory. Challenges and controversies have surrounded the production of coal since its inception, including labor issues, environmental concerns, and resource scarcity. Aldrich's comprehensive approach—which combines historical analysis, economic perspectives, and a deep appreciation for the technological and scientific advancements that transformed the energy landscape—also emphasizes the role of innovation and entrepreneurship in driving energy transitions. 

By providing a bottom-up history that underscores the pivotal role of individual choices and market dynamics, The Rise and Fall of King Coal offers valuable insights into the dynamic nature of energy transitions. In lively discussions of domestic cooking and heating, Aldrich emphasizes the importance of women in shaping households' energy choices, and he gives voice to individual women and men as they describe how these decisions raised their standard of living. This book represents a seminal contribution to the field of energy history and highlights the complex interplay of factors that have shaped the evolution of energy use in the United States.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421451107
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	04/15/2025
Series:	Hagley Library Studies in Business, Technology, and Politics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mark Aldrich is the Marilyn Carlson Nelson Professor Emeritus of Economics at Smith College and the author of Death Rode the Rails: American Railroad Accidents and Safety, 1828–1965; Back on Track: American Railroad Accidents and Safety, 1965–2015; and Safety First: Technology, Labor, and Business in the Building of American Work Safety, 1870–1939.

Mark Aldrich is the Marilyn Carlson Nelson Professor Emeritus of Economics at Smith College and the author of Death Rode the Rails: American Railroad Accidents and Safety, 1829–1965; Back on Track: American Railroad Accidents and Safety, 1965–2015; and Safety First: Technology, Labor, and Business in the Building of American Work Safety, 1870–1939.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
List of Text Tables
Preface
Introduction
Part I: The Rise
1. The Dawning of the Coal Age, 1800-1860
2. The Age of Bituminous Coal, 1860-World War I
Part 2: Losing Industry
3. Soft Coal in Industry, 1900-1940—The Long Good Bye
4. Railroads: Fuel Substitution and Conservation, 1885–1943
Part 3: Leaving Home
5. Coal Departs the Urban Kitchen, 1900–1940
6. "Cooking Shouldn't Cook the Cook": The Kerosene Kitchen, In Rural America, 1870–1940
7. The Battle of the Basements: Oil, Gas and the Retreat of Coal, 1917–1940
Part 4: Counterattack
8. Coal Fights Back: Machines, Markets and Research, 1880–1945
Conclusion
Appendices
Appendix I: Basic Data
Appendix II: Chapters 1 and 2
Appendix III: Chapters 3 and 4
Appendix IV: Chapters 5-7
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Measurement and Conversion Factors
Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

For more than a century, coal improved ordinary Americans' comfort, convenience, and cleanliness, and Mark Aldrich persuasively shows the centrality of entrepreneurs, competition, and male and female consumers in coal's emergence and diminution. Accessible tables provide a quantitative account of American energy use and render the book still more valuable. This is a fundamentally important volume, written in a clear style and informed by massive primary research and generations of historical scholarship.
—Mark H. Rose, coauthor of A Good Place to Do Business: The Politics of Downtown Renewal Since 1945

Mark Aldrich's outstanding study of the history of the rise and fall of coal as key in U.S. energy history deserves close examination by those concerned with energy transitions. Emphasizing the critical nature of market incentives in coordination with other factors in these transitions, Aldrich explores coal as a major element in the industrial, transportation, and domestic domains.
—Joel A. Tarr, coauthor of The Horse in the City: Living Machines in the Nineteenth Century

A fresh, comprehensive, and incisive account of energy transitions in American history, focusing on the rise and demise of coal across 140 years. Extensive data and fine-grained portraits of technologies bear out Aldrich's analytic case: the rewards and penalties of free markets powerfully drove both innovation and conservation in energy choices.
—John K. Brown, author of Spanning the Gilded Age: James Eads and the Great Steel Bridge

Mark Aldrich's meticulous history of market-driven developments in the coal industry documents a constant war on waste that led to solutions for many pressing issues. Policy makers could learn much from this clear text which, unlike most current energy policy discussions, avoids facile energy transition narratives that indict past generations as needlessly wasteful and destructive.
—Pierre Desrochers, coauthor of Population Bombed! Exploding the Link Between Overpopulation and Climate Change