San Antonio College Library

Energy, the master resource, is the world's largest industry and the bedrock of modern life. Without carbon-based energy, in particular, production and consumption as we know it would not exist. During the last 150 years, the United States has been at the forefront of energy development. This book chronicles important swaths of history by focusing on the great entrepreneurs of electricity and natural gas: their lives and labors, their faults and failures,...

When They Hid the Fire examines the American social perceptions of electricity as an energy technology that were adopted between the mid-nineteenth and early decades of the twentieth centuries. Arguing that both technical and cultural factors played a role, Daniel French shows how electricity became an invisible and abstract form of energy in American society. As technological advancements allowed for an increasing physical distance between power...

"Once the embodiment of prosperity, the United States now finds itself in a precarious position. With its financial system in shambles and global standing on the wane, many believe we are witnessing the end of the American era ... The author describes how widespread economic changes--the product of growing conflict and wars, shortages, logistical disruptions, and a breakdown of the established political and monetary order--will impact businesses as...

When the Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989, no one could imagine the environmental disaster that would follow. The tanker carried 55 million gallons of oil in its tank, and about 11 million gallons spilled and eventually covered 1,200 miles of Alaska's coastline. The region's salmon, sea otters, seals, and seabirds had their habitats decimated. One of the main causes cited was the heavy drinking of the tanker's...