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Twentieth Century: Growth and the Hydrocarbon Economy

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Energy and the Wealth of Nations

Abstract

The economy of the early twenty-first century is not just a larger version of the economy of the nineteenth century. It is fundamentally different. This chapter views the development of the American economy from the middle of the twentieth century through the financial crisis and recession of 2008. In 2008, Barack Obama was elected president of the United States with a great deal of optimism. But 2010 saw a conservative resurgence based on poor economic growth and by 2016 the election of a right-wing «populist» Donald Trump. We pose a question: can the pro-growth agenda that dominated the twentieth century withstand the biophysical limits that will be imposed by peak oil and climate change? To answer this crucial question, we need to look carefully at the patterns of history as well as carefully examine the scientific data, which we do with the remainder of this chapter.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environmental Science & Forestry, State University of New York, Syracuse, New York, USA

    Charles A. S. Hall

  2. Wells College, Aurora, New York, USA

    Kent Klitgaard

Authors
  1. Charles A. S. Hall
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  2. Kent Klitgaard
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Hall, C.A.S., Klitgaard, K. (2018). Twentieth Century: Growth and the Hydrocarbon Economy. In: Energy and the Wealth of Nations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66219-0_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66219-0_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-66217-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-66219-0

  • eBook Packages: EnergyEnergy (R0)

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