Aldrich develops several themes about coal’s impact on America. Primarily, he argues that (aside from noted geographical and geological advantages) our national “energy abundance” has been “socially constructed,” by which he means a legion of entrepreneurs, workers, engineers, advertisers, scientists, etc. brought forth onto this earth America’s great prosperity. The primary vehicle for this social construction was private markets. Corollary to these propositions: As coal permeated our economy, it “almost inevitably raised Americans’ standards of living.”
None of these insights are novel. Where Aldrich attempts to break new ground, he focuses on what may seem a niche gripe. Whereas many energy historians “have emphasized the profligacy of Americans’ use of energy,” Aldrich argues that resource conservation comes part and parcel with energy history insofar as the quest for greater efficiency flows naturally from market economies. In other words, the entire progressive ideological fund from which most American energy history draws is fundamentally bankrupt; the lens through which we view our industrial development would be, as a consequence, greatly flawed. Any political institutions or movement premised on such a perspective could be called into question. We’ll see whether or not Aldrich’s controversial claim meets muster.
For now, it’s worth registering when America leapt from its wood economy and swung into a coal economy. No firm date can be set on such a transition, as Aldrich would be first to point out. Narratively, I’d pick July 7, 1826, just after John Adams’s funeral ceremony in Quincy, Massachusetts, when a selection of officials bore witness to one of America’s first railroad tracks, laid to shuttle granite several miles to the Bunker Hill Monument, then under construction. As Aldrich notes, the railroad and the steamboat were main drivers of American coal consumption. Both ran on timber at first, but only after the energy density and efficiency of coal became manifest did these technologies come to define antebellum America.
Energy density can be visualized literally. Coal, according to Aldrich, takes up ““about a quarter of the space of its energy equivalent in wood.” As a consequence, a virtuous cycle took root as we introduced coal into our economy: Thanks to coal’s comparative density, a greater energy payload became easier to transport, which then allowed for “greater geographical dispersion,” thus promoting industries reliant on coal instead of timber. This, backgrounded by our geographically expanding rail and steamboat industries and the rising cost of timber, launched America into the age of coal. These dynamics did not hit their inexorable stride until after Appomattox. From then until Armistice Day, the reign of the Black King revolutionized American industry—though his dominion did not endure equally in all industries.