Face à la puissance. Une histoire des énergies alternatives à l’âge industriel [Facing power: A history of alternative energies in the industrial age] ed. by François Jarrige and Alexis Vrignon (review)

Historians of energy have covered mainstream energy sources of the modern era extensively, from nuclear power to petroleum, coal, and natural gas. But they've neglected other sources like animal traction, alcohol, peat, and solar energy. Why? As the authors of this edited volume argue convincingly, it's partly because energy history is often written from the victor's point of view, legitimizing the victory of today's dominant energy sources through narratives of inevitability. To reintegrate the historical importance of past renewable energy sources, the volume is organized with each of the four chapters written by the editors in turn followed by a few case studies on different renewable energy sources—from peat to geothermal energy to animal power—contributed mostly by French academics. As a whole, the work covers a period that stretches from the seventeenth century to the twenty-first century.

As isn't always the case with edited collections, the chapters fit together nicely, adopt similar perspectives, and come to compatible conclusions. Each of the four chapters penned by the editors François Jarrige and Alexis Vrignon provide context to the period considered in the case studies following it. These chapters can be read as a general overview of energy issues of the day, with a lot of focus on the more mainstream energy sources, notably fossil fuels. Of course, the history of renewable energy has to be told alongside the history of non-renewable energy, but some of these sections feel somewhat redundant and read like repetitions of Jarrige's earlier work.

A few case studies stand out. Jean-Baptiste Fressoz's chapter on candles brings home a lot of points that run throughout the book. Used today as a symbol of dark and pre-modern times, Fressoz demonstrates that nineteenth-century candles resulted from intricate technological change and economic globalization that led to the incorporation of overseas palm oil in European candles. The contribution of candles to energy history (like many renewable sources) is hard to quantify. Their use seems to be rather insignificant compared to their so-called modern competitor of the time, manufactured gas. But the energy efficiency of manufactured gas was extremely poor, from the distillation process to leaks in underground conduits, whereas the amount of useful energy provided by candles was much higher. Still, animal fats barely figure in historical energy statistics, although they were present in most industrialized countries until the twentieth century.

Camille Molles' contribution on the history of alcohol as a motor fuel is also noteworthy. She shows how the marketing of alcohol for such use came from a political will to find outlets for agricultural surpluses in early twentieth century France, amid struggles between wine makers and beet producers. Foregrounding power relations between the state and rural producers, she reveals how the idea of using alcohol for cars crosses the twentieth century and is deeply embedded in shifting social contexts such as threats to national energy provision or agricultural mobilization. In another chapter, Anaël Marrec and Pierre Teissier document how the Vichy regime funded research in tidal and wind energy in the context of fuel shortages during the Second World War. The supposed relationship between alternative energy sources and alternative political systems does not really hold historically: productivist and authoritarian actors have shown interest in renewable energy sources in France like elsewhere.

This book is characteristic of a new French way of studying energy history. Many of its contributors are environmental historians trained in economic and social history. They seek to historicize climate change and energy transitions by demonstrating the longue durée of resource exhaustibility, environmental damage, productivist tendencies, and criticism of industrial capitalism. The book is very much focused on France, although the editors' chapters end with...