Consuming Power

by David E. Nye

How did the United States become the world's largest consumer of energy? In Consuming Power, David Nye shows that this is less a question about the development of technology than it is a question about the development of culture. Nye focuses on the lives of ordinary people engaged in normal activities, examining how these activities changed as new energy systems were constructed, from colonial times to recent years. He also shows how, as Americans incorporated new machines and processes into their lives, they became ensnared in power systems that were not easily changed: they made choices about the conduct of their lives, and those choices accumulated to produce a consuming culture.