Energy and the Making of Modern California by James C. Williams

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 797 The story Heymann presents is structured around the four ele­ ments mentioned above: the role of costs, structural problems, tech­ nical problems, and national technological traditions. This ap­ proach enables him to explain quite convincingly in his concluding chapter the paradox ofwind energy in the 20th century. It also dem­ onstrates the power of his sociotechnical approach. The bulk of the book is more descriptive, the degree of detail of the story more or less dictated by the available sources. The second part presents more in-depth information and focuses mainly on Germany. In the other two parts there is more balance in the description, comparing devel­ opments in Germany to those in other countries. He limits his inter­ est mainly to the United States and Denmark. The writing style and editing unfortunately do not match the quality of the contents of the book. Heymann’s book should not be regarded as the definitive book on the modern history of wind energy, but it is a very useful introduc­ tion to this field. Some parts of it, especially on technological hubris and on the influence ofdifferent technological traditions, transcend the subject of the book and will be of interest to a wider audience. Geert Verbong Dr. Verbong teaches history oftechnology at Eindhoven University ofTechnology and writes about the history of energy in the Netherlands in the 20th century. Energy and the Making of Modem California. By James C. Williams. Akron, Ohio: University ofAkron Press, 1997. Pp. xviii+432; illus­ trations, maps, figures, appendixes, notes, index. (Price not avail­ able.) Historically accustomed to perceiving their nation’s energy re­ sources to be limitless, Americans began to reconsider that faith while sitting in long gas lines during the 1970s. In the wake of that energy crisis, insists James Williams, we need to recognize the con­ nections between our energy history and our current dilemmas. To that end, Williams has produced this remarkably detailed volume tracing California’s energy history of ever-increasing technological complexity and rising rates of energy consumption. In addition to assembling data from scattered sources into a single hitherto untold story of California’s energy development, the book makes three other valuable contributions to energy historiography. It demon­ strates the historical interaction among energy technology, environ­ ment, and society. It probes the origins of the energy world we in­ habit today. And it persuades readers that California historians and energy historians have much to teach each other. The first six chapters examine the 19th-century environmental conditions that directed indefatigable human inventiveness toward 798 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE energy systems of increasing technological complexity. From the American takeover of California in 1848 to the early 20th century, the desire to re-create Eastern-style industrialization motivated en­ ergy development in California, Williams argues. The distance be­ tween forests and cities, the location and unpredictability ofstreams, and poor coal reserves, however, thwarted Californians’ industrial dreams and spurred 19th-century residents to meet energy require­ ments through innovations such as the “California-style” combine (which substituted animal power for human muscles and which later spread to other wheat states), an unlikely grain-for-coal trade with Great Britain, zany contraptions to harness the power ofocean tides, and a variety of other energy resources that Williams details. After the turn of the century, all the tinkering and exploring paid off, as Californians improved petroleum technology to fuel the long sought industrialization. Such developments were, in Williams’s view, the product of ratio­ nal human calculation. He determines that 19th-century Califor­ nians “made energy use choices by roughly calculating advantages. They weighed resource availability, environmental and geographic possibilities, costs of capital and fuel, convenience and suitability of technology, impressions of efficiency and time savings, their own sense of progress, and their material appetites” (p. 113). In sum, nature dashed Californians’ dreams of Eastern-style industrializa­ tion, so, acting with one mind, they charted an alternative course based on available resources and marched down that path. What seem like rational, consensual decisions in retrospect, how­ ever, may have been the product of political struggle. People went to California in the 19th century to pursue many dreams...