Energy and Environment in American History: 1705-2005
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this survey tracing America's rise as the world's largest energy consumer, from 1705 to 2005. The course follows energy through politics, diplomacy, the economy, science, labor, and culture, covering muscle and water power in early America, coal and the Industrial Revolution, electrification, oil and foreign policy, automobiles and suburbanization, nuclear power, the OPEC crisis of the 1970s, and global warming. Materials include the full syllabus, reading assignments, and session-by-session topics as used in the original MIT course. The course closes by weighing possible paths for future energy use. It suits anyone wanting to understand how energy consumption shaped American economic growth, foreign policy, and daily life over three centuries, using primary readings and historical case studies rather than lecture video alone.