Abstract
In earlier chapters, we developed the link between the historical development of energy sources and the development of human society. More energy has allowed humans to do more work, including that of producing more wealth and more humans. We use the joule, for those not steeped in physical science, as the standard measure of energy. One joule is the amount of energy needed to lift a mass of 1 kg a distance of 1 m on the surface of the earth. A joule is equal to about one-quarter of a calorie. Our more familiar unit is the kilocalorie (often written as calorie) and is found, for example, on the back of food packages. One kilocalorie is 1000 calories, equal to about 4 kJ. Thus, if you consume a drink that says it has 100 cal, you will have consumed 418 kJ. Later, in ► Chap. 8, we explore the relation between energy and power from a scientific perspective. Power is the rate of doing work and is commonly measured in watts. From the standpoint of physics, power is energy used or expended per unit of time or the work that power causes or allows to be done. The most common unit of power is the watt, where 1 W = 1 J/s.
References
Galbraith, John Kenneth. 1967. The new industrial state. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Carnegie, Andrew. 1889. The bugaboo of the trusts. North American Review 148: 387.
Yergin, Daniel. 2008. The prize: The epic quest for oil, money, and power, 6. New York: Free Press.
Chandler, Alfred. 1977. The visible hand: The managerial revolution in American business, 321. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press.
Duboff, Richard. 1989. Accumulation and power. New York: M.E. Sharpe.
Pascualli, R.C., and Hall, C.A.S. 2012. The first half of the age of oil. An exploration of the works of Colin Campbell and Jean Laherrere. Springer, NY.
Perelman, Michael. 2006. Railroading economics. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Baran, Paul, and Paul M. Sweezy. 1966. Monopoly capital. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Piore, Michael, and Charles Sabel. 1984. The second industrial divide, 49–72. New York: Basic Books.
Hacker, Louis. 1940. The triumph of American capitalism. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Galbraith, John Kenneth. 1988. The great crash 1929, 68–107. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.
Kennedy, David. 1999. Freedom from fear: The American people in depression and war, 1929–1945. New York: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hall, C.A.S., Klitgaard, K. (2018). The Petroleum Revolution II: Concentrated Power and Concentrated Industries. In: Energy and the Wealth of Nations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66219-0_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66219-0_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-66217-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-66219-0
eBook Packages: EnergyEnergy (R0)