Università Roma Tre

Indicative Themes
Readings will be shared before each class via Dropbox or via mail:


Week 1
The Beginning of the Age of Oil.
We will discuss the emergence of a global oil industry at the beginning of the 20th century, together with the birth of the "concession system" in the Middle East. We will also tackle the concept of "carbon democracy" as a way to understand the political significance and the impact of the beginning of the age of oil and of the passage from one to the other kind of fossil fuels.


Week 2
The Great Depression of the 1930s and WWII.
The international oil industry runs into trouble by the end of the 1920s. We will discuss the pressures for state regulation in the US, the emergence of the first "petrostates" and of the nationalist movements trying to influence oil production.
We will also discuss the first efforts to define energy regimes and the very same concept of an energy regime.
WWII opened the way to the widespread use of oil in the transportation industry as well as a key energy source.

Week 3
The Golden Age of the International Oil Cartel and the Creation of OPEC.
We will discuss the importance of the 1948 "fifty-fifty" profit sharing model as a way to spread the use of petroleum, the rise of the Middle East as a key oil-exporting region, as well as the beginning of western European dependence from petroleum imports. This was the Golden Age of the "international oil cartel" that peaked with the coup in Iran in 1953.
We will then discuss the reasons for the creation of OPEC and its importance both for the evolution of the international energy market and as well as a key actor in international relations in the 20th century. At the same time will also discuss political and economic importance of oil in the Arab world and some of the "rentier state" theories.

Week 4
The 1960s: the Decade of Consumers and Consumerism.
We will discuss the "Great Acceleration" of the Anthropocene and the rise of consumerism, together with the emergence of environmental movements, and we will read some of the key texts that influenced early environmentalism.


Week 5
The Energy Crisis and the "Oil Shocks" of the 1970s.
We will discuss the beginning of the energy crisis of the 1970s as well as the "peak oil" debate and the "limits of growth" theory. At the same time we will deal with the consequences of the emerging environmentalist debate, such as the convening of the first UN Conference on Human Environment (1972).
We will discuss the difference between the two oil shocks of the 1970s and their links to the debate on the creation of a New International Economic Order. We will also deal with the energy malaise in consuming countries and the failed search for "alternatives".

Week 6
The Oil Counter-shock of the 1980s.
We will discuss the rise of the North Sea and of non-OPEC production, as well as the role of the newly elected governments in Great Britain the US for the re-launching the of hydrocarbons energy model. We will assess the impact of the "counter-shock" for the oil consumers and the oil producers.

Week 7
The Crisis of the Petrostates and Globalization.
We will speak about the "oil curse debate" and of the attack on "proprietary governance" in Venezuela and in Russia. We will also discuss the structural shift in energy consumption patterns with the rise of Asia and in particular of China an India as key energy consumers and importers.

Week 8
Energy Transition or Energy Transformation?
We will discuss the concept of "energy transitions" as opposed to that of "energy transformation" and discuss what could be the likely nature of this energy transformation. We will debate examples of energy transitions in history and find links and connections with the present situation.

Week 9
The Anthropocene, its Meaning and Consequences.
We will discuss the meaning of the "Anthropocene" concept as well as its political significance and ita impact on the study of the humanities.

Week 10
The Global Warming Diplomacy.
We will discuss the impact of "renewable energy" and the possibility and consequences of "peak demand" for petroleum in the future. At the same time will try to understand the limits of the fight against global warming, such as the emergence of "shale" and of difficulties in controlling the rise in CO2 levels. We also discuss the possibility of litigation against oil companies and the idea of keeping natural resources underground.

Required:
• Leonardo Maugeri, The Age of Oil: The Mythology, History, and Future of the World's Most Controversial Resources (the complete book)
• Christophe Bonneuil and Jean-Baptise Fressoz, The Shock of the Anthropocene. The Earth, History and Us (the complete book)

One of the following (or another previously agreed with the instructor):
• Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable
• Simon Pirani, Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuels Consumption
• Bernard Mommer, Global Oil and the Nation State
• John McNeill and Peter Engelke, The Great Acceleration. An Environmental History of the Anthropocene Since 1945
• Meg Jacobs, Panic at the Pump: The Energy Crisis and the Transformation of American Politics in the 1970s
• Myrna Santiago, The Ecology of Oil. Environment, Labour and the Mexican Revolution, 1900-1938
• Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate
• Timothy Mitchell, Carbon Democracy. Political Power in the Age of Oil
• Pierre Terzian, OPEC: The Inside Story
• Tyler Volk, CO2 Raising: The World's Greatest Environmental Challenge
• Andreas Malm, Fossil Capital. The Rise of the Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming

A useful source for inspiration for your presentations and for the essay:
• Luigi Piccioni, La cronologia di "altronovecento" dell'ambiente e dell'ambientalismo 1853-2000