Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil [Paperback]

Does oil wealth lead to political poverty? It often looks that way, butCarbon Democracytells a more complex story. In this magisterial study, Timothy Mitchell rethinks the history of energy, bringing into his grasp as he does so environmental politics, the struggle for democracy, and the place of the Middle East in the modern world. 

With the rise of coal power, the producers who oversaw its production acquired the ability to shut down energy systems, a threat they used to build the first mass democracies. Oil offered the West an alternative, and with it came a new form of politics. Oil created a denatured political life whose central object – the economy – appeared capable of infinite growth. What followed was a Western democracy dependent on an undemocratic Middle East. We now live with the consequences: an impoverished political practice, incapable of addressing the crises that threaten to end the age of carbon democracy – namely, the disappearance of cheap energy and the carbon-fueled collapse of the ecological order. Timothy Mitchell’sCarbon Democracyexamines the simultaneous rise of fossil-fueled capitalism and mass democracy and asks very intelligent questions about the fate of democracy when oil production declines.
—Benjamin Kunkel,New Statesman

“Carbon Democracyis a sweeping overview of the relationship between fossil fuels and political institutions from the industrial revolution to the Arab Spring, which adds layers of depth and complexity to the accounts of how resource wealth and economic development are linked.”
—Financial Times

“A challenging, sophisticated, and important book.”
—Marc Lynch,Foreign Policy

“A brilliant, revisionist argument that places oil companies at the heart of 20th century history—and of the political and environmental crises we now face &hellc