Lifeblood

Oil, Freedom, and the Forces of Capital

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Government, Public Policy, Science & Nature, Nature, Environment, Environmental Conservation & Protection, History, Americas, United States
Cover of the book Lifeblood by Matthew T. Huber, University of Minnesota Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Matthew T. Huber ISBN: 9780816685967
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press Publication: August 1, 2013
Imprint: Univ Of Minnesota Press Language: English
Author: Matthew T. Huber
ISBN: 9780816685967
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Publication: August 1, 2013
Imprint: Univ Of Minnesota Press
Language: English

If our oil addiction is so bad for us, why don’t we kick the habit? Looking beyond the usual culprits—Big Oil, petro-states, and the strategists of empire—Lifeblood finds a deeper and more complex explanation in everyday practices of oil consumption in American culture. Those practices, Matthew T. Huber suggests, have in fact been instrumental in shaping the broader cultural politics of American capitalism.

How did gasoline and countless other petroleum products become so central to our notions of the American way of life? Huber traces the answer from the 1930s through the oil shocks of the 1970s to our present predicament, revealing that oil’s role in defining popular culture extends far beyond material connections between oil, suburbia, and automobility. He shows how oil powered a cultural politics of entrepreneurial life—the very American idea that life itself is a product of individual entrepreneurial capacities. In so doing he uses oil to retell American political history from the triumph of New Deal liberalism to the rise of the New Right, from oil’s celebration as the lifeblood of postwar capitalism to increasing anxieties over oil addiction.

Lifeblood rethinks debates surrounding energy and capitalism, neoliberalism and nature, and the importance of suburbanization in the rightward shift in American politics. Today, Huber tells us, as crises attributable to oil intensify, a populist clamoring for cheap energy has less to do with American excess than with the eroding conditions of life under neoliberalism.

If our oil addiction is so bad for us, why don’t we kick the habit? Looking beyond the usual culprits—Big Oil, petro-states, and the strategists of empire—Lifeblood finds a deeper and more complex explanation in everyday practices of oil consumption in American culture. Those practices, Matthew T. Huber suggests, have in fact been instrumental in shaping the broader cultural politics of American capitalism.

How did gasoline and countless other petroleum products become so central to our notions of the American way of life? Huber traces the answer from the 1930s through the oil shocks of the 1970s to our present predicament, revealing that oil’s role in defining popular culture extends far beyond material connections between oil, suburbia, and automobility. He shows how oil powered a cultural politics of entrepreneurial life—the very American idea that life itself is a product of individual entrepreneurial capacities. In so doing he uses oil to retell American political history from the triumph of New Deal liberalism to the rise of the New Right, from oil’s celebration as the lifeblood of postwar capitalism to increasing anxieties over oil addiction.

Lifeblood rethinks debates surrounding energy and capitalism, neoliberalism and nature, and the importance of suburbanization in the rightward shift in American politics. Today, Huber tells us, as crises attributable to oil intensify, a populist clamoring for cheap energy has less to do with American excess than with the eroding conditions of life under neoliberalism.

More books from University of Minnesota Press

Cover of the book Lemon Jail by Matthew T. Huber
Cover of the book We Know How This Ends by Matthew T. Huber
Cover of the book Inter/Nationalism by Matthew T. Huber
Cover of the book Broken Mirrors/Broken Minds by Matthew T. Huber
Cover of the book A Shadow over Palestine by Matthew T. Huber
Cover of the book Object-Oriented Feminism by Matthew T. Huber
Cover of the book Last Project Standing by Matthew T. Huber
Cover of the book Singular Images, Failed Copies by Matthew T. Huber
Cover of the book Everybody's Heard about the Bird by Matthew T. Huber
Cover of the book Of Sheep, Oranges, and Yeast by Matthew T. Huber
Cover of the book Once in a Blue Moon Lodge by Matthew T. Huber
Cover of the book Speech Begins after Death by Matthew T. Huber
Cover of the book Mechademia 10 by Matthew T. Huber
Cover of the book Consumers And Citizens by Matthew T. Huber
Cover of the book Hakon of Rogen's Saga by Matthew T. Huber
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy