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Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives
Internal Combustion is the compelling tale of corruption and manipulation that subjected the U.S. and the world to an oil addiction that could have been avoided, that was never necessary, and that could be ended not in ten years, not in five years, but today.
Edwin Black, award-winning author of IBM and the Holocaust , has mined scores of corporate and governmental archives to assemble thousands of previously uncovered and long-forgotten documents and studies into this dramatic story. Black traces a continuum of rapacious energy cartels and special interests dating back nearly 5,000 years, from wood to coal to oil, and then to the bicycle and electric battery cartels of the 1890s, which created thousands of electric vehicles that plied American streets a century ago. But those noiseless and clean cars were scuttled by petroleum interests, despite the little-known efforts of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford to mass-produce electric cars powered by personal backyard energy stations. Black also documents how General Motors criminally conspired to undermine mass transit in dozens of cities and how Big Oil, Big Corn, and Big Coal have subverted synthetic fuels and other alternatives.
He then brings the story full-circle to the present day oil crises, global warming and beyond. Black showcases overlooked compressed-gas, electric and hydrogen cars on the market today, as well as inexpensive all-function home energy units that could eliminate much oil usage. His eye-opening call for a Manhattan Project for immediate energy independence will help energize society to finally take action.
Internal Combustion , and its interactive website www.internalcombustionbook.com, will generate a much-needed national debate at a crucial time. It should be read by every citizen who consumes oil -- everyone. Internal Combustion can change everything, not by reinventing the wheel, but by excavating it from where it was buried a century ago.
Edwin Black, award-winning author of IBM and the Holocaust , has mined scores of corporate and governmental archives to assemble thousands of previously uncovered and long-forgotten documents and studies into this dramatic story. Black traces a continuum of rapacious energy cartels and special interests dating back nearly 5,000 years, from wood to coal to oil, and then to the bicycle and electric battery cartels of the 1890s, which created thousands of electric vehicles that plied American streets a century ago. But those noiseless and clean cars were scuttled by petroleum interests, despite the little-known efforts of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford to mass-produce electric cars powered by personal backyard energy stations. Black also documents how General Motors criminally conspired to undermine mass transit in dozens of cities and how Big Oil, Big Corn, and Big Coal have subverted synthetic fuels and other alternatives.
He then brings the story full-circle to the present day oil crises, global warming and beyond. Black showcases overlooked compressed-gas, electric and hydrogen cars on the market today, as well as inexpensive all-function home energy units that could eliminate much oil usage. His eye-opening call for a Manhattan Project for immediate energy independence will help energize society to finally take action.
Internal Combustion , and its interactive website www.internalcombustionbook.com, will generate a much-needed national debate at a crucial time. It should be read by every citizen who consumes oil -- everyone. Internal Combustion can change everything, not by reinventing the wheel, but by excavating it from where it was buried a century ago.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2006
16 people are currently reading
417 people want to read
About the author
Edwin Black
54 books153 followersIs an American syndicated columnist and journalist. He specializes in human rights, the historical interplay between economics and politics in the Middle East, petroleum policy, the abuses practiced by corporations, and the financial underpinnings of Nazi Germany.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
December 28, 2010
The energy density of gasoline is approximately 46 MJ/kg, and that of diesel fuel is approximately 39 MJ/kg. The energy density of lead acid batteries is approximately 0.1 MJ/kg, and that of lithium ion batteries is approximately 0.6 MJ/kg. A book on the history of internal combustion engines versus electric engines should begin with these numbers; if it does not, it reminds me of the great engineer's saying, "He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense." The world runs on internal combustion engines, both gasoline and diesel, and not on electric engines because of these facts, not because of the conspiracies Black talks and hints about: a fire in Thomas Edison's laboratory when it was about to produce a super-battery, the alleged GM conspiracy most people interested in the history of transportation have heard about (contrary to what Black asserts), which I thought was refuted in James Flink's The Automobile Age (I am not going to compare Flink's arguments with Black's).
American transportation is very inefficient. More often than not, I ride half-empty buses; most commuters ride alone in a vehicle that can hold four or more people; many people live much farther from their jobs than they could. As gasoline and diesel fuel become more expensive, these inefficiencies will be wrung out. However, until the world's oil runs out, nothing will replace the internal combustion engine, which is used everywhere because it is better than everything else, and not because of conspiracies.
A few weeks ago a fellow commuter on the bus told me that oil companies suppress alternative fuels, and pharmaceutical companies suppress natural medicines. I told him that they were telling this story in ancient Rome: in Satyricon by Petronius a character tells about an artisan who invented a glass vial that wouldn't break; when he showed it to the emperor, the emperor ordered to behead him so gold wouldn't be devalued.
American transportation is very inefficient. More often than not, I ride half-empty buses; most commuters ride alone in a vehicle that can hold four or more people; many people live much farther from their jobs than they could. As gasoline and diesel fuel become more expensive, these inefficiencies will be wrung out. However, until the world's oil runs out, nothing will replace the internal combustion engine, which is used everywhere because it is better than everything else, and not because of conspiracies.
A few weeks ago a fellow commuter on the bus told me that oil companies suppress alternative fuels, and pharmaceutical companies suppress natural medicines. I told him that they were telling this story in ancient Rome: in Satyricon by Petronius a character tells about an artisan who invented a glass vial that wouldn't break; when he showed it to the emperor, the emperor ordered to behead him so gold wouldn't be devalued.
August 29, 2021
This is a pretty ordinary history book. The author does cover some interesting topics, specifically:
1. The patent disputes during the very early days of the auto industry
2. Ford and Edison's aborted plan to develop an "electric Model-T"
3. The Milwaukee Railroad, its 600 mile electric railway over the Rockies, and its financial misfortunes
4. GM's successful scheme to buy up and shut down all the electric trolleys in the U.S. in the 1930's and 40's, thereby forcing people to ride gasoline or diesel GM buses or buy cars
5. Honda's development of a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle and the prospects for hydrogen fuel cells to replace gasoline internal combustion engines.
A peculiarity of the book is its overly dramatic prose and constant suggestion of dark powers at work. Powerful forces work behind the scenes to suppress clean electric power and promote smelly, nasty internal combustion engines. The author never proves or even clearly outlines this sinister plot, which is sort of disappointing.
Another problem is his lack of technical expertise. He is a journalist and one has the impression he doesn't really understand the technicalities of the automobile engine. He makes such claims as "Brazilian ethanol contains several times more energy than America ethanol." He doesn't seem to understand the differences between starter batteries for a gasoline engines and batteries used for powering electric cars.
In short, a moderately interesting history book, but flawed.
1. The patent disputes during the very early days of the auto industry
2. Ford and Edison's aborted plan to develop an "electric Model-T"
3. The Milwaukee Railroad, its 600 mile electric railway over the Rockies, and its financial misfortunes
4. GM's successful scheme to buy up and shut down all the electric trolleys in the U.S. in the 1930's and 40's, thereby forcing people to ride gasoline or diesel GM buses or buy cars
5. Honda's development of a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle and the prospects for hydrogen fuel cells to replace gasoline internal combustion engines.
A peculiarity of the book is its overly dramatic prose and constant suggestion of dark powers at work. Powerful forces work behind the scenes to suppress clean electric power and promote smelly, nasty internal combustion engines. The author never proves or even clearly outlines this sinister plot, which is sort of disappointing.
Another problem is his lack of technical expertise. He is a journalist and one has the impression he doesn't really understand the technicalities of the automobile engine. He makes such claims as "Brazilian ethanol contains several times more energy than America ethanol." He doesn't seem to understand the differences between starter batteries for a gasoline engines and batteries used for powering electric cars.
In short, a moderately interesting history book, but flawed.
August 29, 2010
I picked this book up hoping for information about the origin and development of the internal combustion (IC) engine as well as it's place against the competing technologies of the late 1800s. Well, the book did have some of that, but not quite how I imagined it. Perhaps it is a style of this author (I have not read any of his other works), or perhaps this topic is one that he feels exceptionally passionate about. But passionate he certainly is.
For some, this book is probably a high-water mark of literature on the topic of IC and how it has come to dominate the world of transportation. But I found it to be so heavy-handed, so strident, and so limited in its scope in places, that I might describe it as more of a "polemic" or "diatribe". Yes, it is a very clearly written work and obviously well-researched. But, just as obviously, the author has chosen to amplify and highlight (to extremes at times) those events or historic sequences that he feels illustrate the over-arching theme of the book: petroleum bad, electricity good.
Now, I don't disagree that the heavy use of fossil fuels has been and continues to be a negative for humanity and the Earth, but it has also been a positive. And this is largely acknowledged only as another accusation. The author also writes as if the energy monopolists and oligarchs have been the worst and most egregious for all of recorded history. I would dispute that viewpoint, as well.
But, on the plus side of the ledger, the book IS very well researched and it does give a wealth of information about past events that a more cursory reader may not have known of. The Edison Iron-Nickel storage battery (and the alliance with Ford) to create a low-cost, popular all-electric vehicle is something I nothing of. The varied development of the lead-acid storage battery (and the name Exide) being another example.
I knew of the plan and prosecution of GM to displace electrical trolley lines with gas/diesel buses, but the author gives quite a lot of excellent details on how GM entered the mass transportation business and how the displacements proceeded. Not surprisingly, other corporations in the petroleum, tire, etc. fields were co-conspirators, but this was a detail I was not familiar with either.
But even when he writes of these great incidents, he ignores or obscures facts that prove "inconvenient" to him. One case in point: The local/home generators that Edison was promoting. No where does the author mention, let alone detail, the fact that Edison was a proponent of Direct Current (DC) voltage systems (versus Alternating Current (AC) voltage).
Now, DC (at least without modern electronics) is difficult and inefficient to convert from one voltage to another, or to transfer for very large distances. And because of that (and because it was originally much simpler/easier to make a working DC motor) Edison HAD to put generating systems within a short distance to the consumer. In one account that I have read, the proposal was one every city block. But if one thinks about the implications of having a generator station every 1 or 2 blocks, then the case that it would be "cleaner" and less polluting seems rather far-fetched. As does the claim that "clean" energy sources of the early 1900s could have produced sufficient power.
Yes, these facts would have lengthened the book (the author had extra material on a website for other points he wished to make), but they would have diluted the impact the author was attempting to achieve, also. Yes, I am nitpicking, but I expected a more "balanced" work on the topic. (FYI - AC won out because, as Tesla argued, it could be sent more economically over long distances by converting it to a far higher voltage for transmission and then transforming it back to a lower one for actual use. Plus, a practical, efficient AC motor was developed - but originally only at 60 Hz, which is why AC power shifted from 135 Hz to 60 Hz before widespread adoption.)
Ultimately each reader needs to decide how much or how little they like a specific book. There are far worse and far less-well-informed books out there, so I do recommend this book. Just keep your mind open.
For some, this book is probably a high-water mark of literature on the topic of IC and how it has come to dominate the world of transportation. But I found it to be so heavy-handed, so strident, and so limited in its scope in places, that I might describe it as more of a "polemic" or "diatribe". Yes, it is a very clearly written work and obviously well-researched. But, just as obviously, the author has chosen to amplify and highlight (to extremes at times) those events or historic sequences that he feels illustrate the over-arching theme of the book: petroleum bad, electricity good.
Now, I don't disagree that the heavy use of fossil fuels has been and continues to be a negative for humanity and the Earth, but it has also been a positive. And this is largely acknowledged only as another accusation. The author also writes as if the energy monopolists and oligarchs have been the worst and most egregious for all of recorded history. I would dispute that viewpoint, as well.
But, on the plus side of the ledger, the book IS very well researched and it does give a wealth of information about past events that a more cursory reader may not have known of. The Edison Iron-Nickel storage battery (and the alliance with Ford) to create a low-cost, popular all-electric vehicle is something I nothing of. The varied development of the lead-acid storage battery (and the name Exide) being another example.
I knew of the plan and prosecution of GM to displace electrical trolley lines with gas/diesel buses, but the author gives quite a lot of excellent details on how GM entered the mass transportation business and how the displacements proceeded. Not surprisingly, other corporations in the petroleum, tire, etc. fields were co-conspirators, but this was a detail I was not familiar with either.
But even when he writes of these great incidents, he ignores or obscures facts that prove "inconvenient" to him. One case in point: The local/home generators that Edison was promoting. No where does the author mention, let alone detail, the fact that Edison was a proponent of Direct Current (DC) voltage systems (versus Alternating Current (AC) voltage).
Now, DC (at least without modern electronics) is difficult and inefficient to convert from one voltage to another, or to transfer for very large distances. And because of that (and because it was originally much simpler/easier to make a working DC motor) Edison HAD to put generating systems within a short distance to the consumer. In one account that I have read, the proposal was one every city block. But if one thinks about the implications of having a generator station every 1 or 2 blocks, then the case that it would be "cleaner" and less polluting seems rather far-fetched. As does the claim that "clean" energy sources of the early 1900s could have produced sufficient power.
Yes, these facts would have lengthened the book (the author had extra material on a website for other points he wished to make), but they would have diluted the impact the author was attempting to achieve, also. Yes, I am nitpicking, but I expected a more "balanced" work on the topic. (FYI - AC won out because, as Tesla argued, it could be sent more economically over long distances by converting it to a far higher voltage for transmission and then transforming it back to a lower one for actual use. Plus, a practical, efficient AC motor was developed - but originally only at 60 Hz, which is why AC power shifted from 135 Hz to 60 Hz before widespread adoption.)
Ultimately each reader needs to decide how much or how little they like a specific book. There are far worse and far less-well-informed books out there, so I do recommend this book. Just keep your mind open.
May 20, 2016
Excellent research, organization and writing. The author allows the reader to draw their own conclusions regarding the Edison "arson" at his research station in New Jersey. Readers of this book must somehow learn to live with the knowledge that we were put on a fossil fuel track 100 years or so ago, by nefarious, greedy and selfish means and every living species on this planet are detrimentally effected. Edwin Black does not write about the environmental impact but does write about how a few people with the complacency of government, stopped minimal impact forms of transportation like electric street cars and the battery operated motor vehicle. If you are interested in how our planet reached its critically dire condition - it is a must read.
February 21, 2009
I read this book a while ago and some of its concepts have stuck in my memory:
Thomas Edisons vision of self sufficient households generating their own power via windmills charging a variety of DC batteries is fascinating. His work, done in the early 1900s, could be of great value 100 years later.
The examination of General Motor's strategy of buying up electric trolleys (and elected officials) and replacing them with buses is valuable.
Overall the author / publisher fills too many pages with excruciating and often repititive details intended to prove the cases supporting the book's thesis. The book is long on historical research and short on any vision for a better future.
Thomas Edisons vision of self sufficient households generating their own power via windmills charging a variety of DC batteries is fascinating. His work, done in the early 1900s, could be of great value 100 years later.
The examination of General Motor's strategy of buying up electric trolleys (and elected officials) and replacing them with buses is valuable.
Overall the author / publisher fills too many pages with excruciating and often repititive details intended to prove the cases supporting the book's thesis. The book is long on historical research and short on any vision for a better future.
June 17, 2009
This was a fantastic book about the history of electrical engines versus their internal combustion competition. It is by the author of IBM and the Holocaust, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. So right away it is well-written and exhaustively researched. It is eye-opening in all the right ways for people who think that electric cars are something new. If you've seen the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" this is the book to read afterwards. The story of corruption and greed stretching back for generations is disheartening, of course, but I like his exploration of possible future technologies at the end. A great and influential read. You will never feel the same way about GM again.
Want to read
May 19, 2008also watch...http://www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com/
February 6, 2019
I read most of this book, then set it aside for a while and, eventually finished it.
I'd thought that the modern, litigious system of suing everyone who potentially steps on your Intellectual Property, was a newer development. Turns out, no. Early battery companies engaged in this. The person who, eventually, managed to land the patent for the internal combustion engine (a patent attorney, who had numerous patent applications refused and kept amending and amending until he succeeded) did this too. Ultimately, a group of patent owners and financiers got together and attempted to create a monopoly on automobiles; they pointedly got Selden (the aforementioned patent attorney) in their group.
Henry Ford wasn't part of the group. So they sued him, over and over again, trying to force him out of business. Ultimately, the patents expired and Ford got off without having to sign their license agreement, but not until they'd pulled all manner of dirty tricks, costing him a tremendous amount of money.
Ford and Edison decided to start a company to build electric vehicles. Edison provided the battery know-how and Ford provided the vehicle manufacturing know-how. Then, a mysterious fire at Edison's facility nearly wiped him out. How a bunch of buildings which were specifically designed to be fireproof and extensively protected against same managed to catch fire, en-mass, has never really been explained. Since Edison was self-ensured, the financial loss was staggering. And that largely ended his attempts at building a battery-electric vehicle empire.
We did have an electric railroad for a while, known as the Milwaukee Road. Railroad executives from other countries came to the USA and rode on it. They were impressed with the efficiency, speed and quietness and went home and started electric-powered railroads in their own countries. I've ridden on such railroads in Norway. But, since the Milwaukee Road ended up being owned by a bunch of financiers who were busy looting it (it was financially solvent, otherwise, and provided tons of money to said financiers) it was, ultimately, bankrupted. And sold. And the expensive infrastructure was scrapped and sold.
Similar fates awaited various light rail systems throughout the country. General Motors, Firestone and Standard Oil contributed their funds and expertise to an organization which went through, systematically buying up light-rail systems and replacing them with buses. Sure, GM build / sold buses. But people invariably hated the buses and they tended not to be as available as the previous light-rail systems (fewer buses, few stops, shifting schedules) so people ended up needing to buy personal vehicles (the REAL cash cow for GM). The tales of corruption are many, varied and well documented in this book.
Ultimately, this book really pissed me off. It's well-researched, extensively footnoted and well-written. But the tale of corruption and greed that it tells is offensive to anyone who looks at the modern situation, where our society is so car-dependent, and ponders how it used to be and how it could be, if not for a bunch of GENUINELY BAD actors.
If you aren't pissed off, you aren't paying attention.
That's why I had to put it down for a while and come back to it.
I'd thought that the modern, litigious system of suing everyone who potentially steps on your Intellectual Property, was a newer development. Turns out, no. Early battery companies engaged in this. The person who, eventually, managed to land the patent for the internal combustion engine (a patent attorney, who had numerous patent applications refused and kept amending and amending until he succeeded) did this too. Ultimately, a group of patent owners and financiers got together and attempted to create a monopoly on automobiles; they pointedly got Selden (the aforementioned patent attorney) in their group.
Henry Ford wasn't part of the group. So they sued him, over and over again, trying to force him out of business. Ultimately, the patents expired and Ford got off without having to sign their license agreement, but not until they'd pulled all manner of dirty tricks, costing him a tremendous amount of money.
Ford and Edison decided to start a company to build electric vehicles. Edison provided the battery know-how and Ford provided the vehicle manufacturing know-how. Then, a mysterious fire at Edison's facility nearly wiped him out. How a bunch of buildings which were specifically designed to be fireproof and extensively protected against same managed to catch fire, en-mass, has never really been explained. Since Edison was self-ensured, the financial loss was staggering. And that largely ended his attempts at building a battery-electric vehicle empire.
We did have an electric railroad for a while, known as the Milwaukee Road. Railroad executives from other countries came to the USA and rode on it. They were impressed with the efficiency, speed and quietness and went home and started electric-powered railroads in their own countries. I've ridden on such railroads in Norway. But, since the Milwaukee Road ended up being owned by a bunch of financiers who were busy looting it (it was financially solvent, otherwise, and provided tons of money to said financiers) it was, ultimately, bankrupted. And sold. And the expensive infrastructure was scrapped and sold.
Similar fates awaited various light rail systems throughout the country. General Motors, Firestone and Standard Oil contributed their funds and expertise to an organization which went through, systematically buying up light-rail systems and replacing them with buses. Sure, GM build / sold buses. But people invariably hated the buses and they tended not to be as available as the previous light-rail systems (fewer buses, few stops, shifting schedules) so people ended up needing to buy personal vehicles (the REAL cash cow for GM). The tales of corruption are many, varied and well documented in this book.
Ultimately, this book really pissed me off. It's well-researched, extensively footnoted and well-written. But the tale of corruption and greed that it tells is offensive to anyone who looks at the modern situation, where our society is so car-dependent, and ponders how it used to be and how it could be, if not for a bunch of GENUINELY BAD actors.
If you aren't pissed off, you aren't paying attention.
That's why I had to put it down for a while and come back to it.
August 20, 2023
It took nearly two years but I finally finished reading this extremely detailed book. It is very insightful about the history of the behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealings that went on to undermine public transportation with trains and trolleys in favor of cars and buses starting in the 1920's and going into the 1950's and 1960's.
Now, when I say this book is extremely detailed that is no understatement. It is like reading a graduate-level publication. For example, it covers very specific instances of meetings and plans that specifically took place on such and such a date in, for example, 1898. These are details that I feel your typical reader probably won't care about all that much. However, from a documentation and historical point of view, I feel that such details are important in maintaining dates and important records.
Oh, and rather ironically the author considers the EV to be more or less done and out with its hay day having ended with the start of WWI 90 years prior to its publication. I suppose, however, that the author, who published this book in Summer 2006, had no way of knowing that EVs would be resuscitated to the extent that they have.
The author concludes his book with a section on hydrogen. It is interesting to read how corporations and automobile manufacturers had these grand plans for hydrogen infrastructure to be developed and phased in by 2009, 2010, 2016, etc. and sadly, these plans have not come to fruition near as I can tell.
Now, when I say this book is extremely detailed that is no understatement. It is like reading a graduate-level publication. For example, it covers very specific instances of meetings and plans that specifically took place on such and such a date in, for example, 1898. These are details that I feel your typical reader probably won't care about all that much. However, from a documentation and historical point of view, I feel that such details are important in maintaining dates and important records.
Oh, and rather ironically the author considers the EV to be more or less done and out with its hay day having ended with the start of WWI 90 years prior to its publication. I suppose, however, that the author, who published this book in Summer 2006, had no way of knowing that EVs would be resuscitated to the extent that they have.
The author concludes his book with a section on hydrogen. It is interesting to read how corporations and automobile manufacturers had these grand plans for hydrogen infrastructure to be developed and phased in by 2009, 2010, 2016, etc. and sadly, these plans have not come to fruition near as I can tell.
May 9, 2021
For business-history enthusiast absolute must-read. Even if I am not so completely green as author appears to be, storytelling is top-notch and really enjoyable.
March 29, 2023
Everything in this book is overly biased.
Not a single chance for contradictory.
Not a single chance for contradictory.
February 1, 2025
All this hoohaw over electric vehicles is so old hat.
This fascinatingly informative book was a joy to read. Recommended by a friend and not something In would normally read.
This fascinatingly informative book was a joy to read. Recommended by a friend and not something In would normally read.
April 30, 2025
There is an obvious bias, but also much history.
April 26, 2010
This was an interesting book about how the internal combustion engine (ICE) rose to prominence and power over the electric alternatives as early as the 1920s.
I finished this book more than a year ago, but here are three interesting facts that have stuck with me...
1. Before cars stated hitting the scene, horses were the main mode of transportation. Two key problems people had with horses is that they were loud and smelly. When the first ICE cars started tooling around, people had the same complaints, they were loud and the exhaust smelled terrible. Most people preferred the quieter, exhaust-free battery-powered electric cars. It was only through some crafty marketing that the ICE companies were able to convince men that the louder and smellier a car, the more macho it was and conversely... quiet cars were for the ladies.
Something that holds true today, making it that much harder to switch fuels.
2. Because people preferred the electric car, New York was once outfitted with charging stations all around the city for plugging in and recharging cars throughout the day.
3. When large oil wells began to be found in America, the government decided to subsidize the oil companies to create an strong American oil market, thus, essentially killing the electric car about 60 or 70 years before GM had the chance.
And as a side note, those companies still get subsidized by tax dollars, making our gasoline appear cheaper at the pump.
--
Overall, the book gets a little dry at several parts, but I think it's a book worth reading, especially for people who think the only reason electric cars aren't viable is because of the free market, because that simplistic understanding is far from the truth.
I finished this book more than a year ago, but here are three interesting facts that have stuck with me...
1. Before cars stated hitting the scene, horses were the main mode of transportation. Two key problems people had with horses is that they were loud and smelly. When the first ICE cars started tooling around, people had the same complaints, they were loud and the exhaust smelled terrible. Most people preferred the quieter, exhaust-free battery-powered electric cars. It was only through some crafty marketing that the ICE companies were able to convince men that the louder and smellier a car, the more macho it was and conversely... quiet cars were for the ladies.
Something that holds true today, making it that much harder to switch fuels.
2. Because people preferred the electric car, New York was once outfitted with charging stations all around the city for plugging in and recharging cars throughout the day.
3. When large oil wells began to be found in America, the government decided to subsidize the oil companies to create an strong American oil market, thus, essentially killing the electric car about 60 or 70 years before GM had the chance.
And as a side note, those companies still get subsidized by tax dollars, making our gasoline appear cheaper at the pump.
--
Overall, the book gets a little dry at several parts, but I think it's a book worth reading, especially for people who think the only reason electric cars aren't viable is because of the free market, because that simplistic understanding is far from the truth.
February 28, 2010
For a very noteworthy subject that I'm quite interested in, this was quite disappointing. It has its moments, but many of the chapters will leave you scratching your head ("why am I still learning about Robin Hood?"). Although it was nice learning the origin of that fellow, that would have been a quick trip to wikipedia: -3 points. Things pick up once GM gets onto the scene (yes, there's a lot between Robin Hood and GM) and starts wiping out public transportation. This is the part of the tour they don't give during the streetcar museum visit -- if they did, you'd probably leave a lot more pissed. Anyway, there a few chapters here that are winners, but they aren't enough to support his thesis, let alone hold your attention throughout the book.
June 10, 2008
I listened to this as an audiobook. All 13 CDs!
The subject matter is excellent and of great interest to me, and as a history book should be required reading.
The writing style is a bit tedious and sometimes strays into way too much useless detail (copies and copies of letters presented at trial). Might have been better to write it with more of a story narrative. The book "Longitude" is an example of what I mean.
The last 3 CDs are the best because they relate more to the modern day collusion going on and the current alternatives to our addiction to oil. Skip to the end and read that part and you'll get your money's worth.
The subject matter is excellent and of great interest to me, and as a history book should be required reading.
The writing style is a bit tedious and sometimes strays into way too much useless detail (copies and copies of letters presented at trial). Might have been better to write it with more of a story narrative. The book "Longitude" is an example of what I mean.
The last 3 CDs are the best because they relate more to the modern day collusion going on and the current alternatives to our addiction to oil. Skip to the end and read that part and you'll get your money's worth.
May 5, 2007
This is a wonderful book. It will make you mad though. It talks about electric cars in 1914, electric trains, electric trolleys in all sorts of cities and how companies like GM did their best to defeat these great ideas and replace them with petroleum powered conveyances. It also includes some hopeful news about technologies that are being developed right now to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels.
May 3, 2017
I enjoyed Edwin Black's book, Internal Combustion, and found it very informative. It also provided fresh insight into the past record of General Motors and other key corporations in their drive to promote petroleum-based internal combustion in ways that profited their own monetary interests over the interests of society at large, particularly their role in assisting the demise of mass transit in these United States. It's well worth reading.
November 27, 2008
just depressing. I think I ran out of optimism once the election was over and the tension of waiting for the results to be stolen was gone. I just can't seem to get myself up for reading nonfiction that is anything depressing. Which takes care of about 90% of what I seem to pick up, hmmm could that be part of my problem?
October 26, 2010
pretty good read. the author sometimes diverts his attention from the history of energy/energy storage in the 19th & 20th centuries (the book's strong suit) into op-ed work. very interesting tales about how the electrical vehicle industry shot itself in the foot early on & how a small group of company men worked to take any electrical transportation out of commission.
July 27, 2012
A great read on the history of fuel and how we got addicted to oil and its 19th Century technological wonder, the internal combustion engine. Also explores the relationship of the ruling-owning class to everybody else.
September 1, 2007
Obviously, this book was rather rabidly anti-oil. However, it did have some good facts and statistics that I utilized.
March 15, 2008
Detailed without enough story. Interesting at points.
April 28, 2008
how oil became king
July 22, 2008
pack with intriguing facts..
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September 26, 2008Just started reading it. I know Edwin Black has a follow up book, "The Plan," which offers solutions for alternative sustainable fuels but thought I'd get more background by reading this one first.
November 30, 2008
If one wishes to gain an historical perspective on the influence of big oil in this modern world of commerce, this is the book to read.
June 9, 2009
I agree with many of the other reviews - lots of research went into this book, but the writing style and obvious anti-oil point of view make it difficult at times to keep reading.
July 23, 2009
A page-turning narrative about the greed and corruption in our politically charged corporate America and how this addicted the world to oil.
June 12, 2010
Absolutely fascinating documentation about the turn of century alternatives that were neglected and undermined to create the infrastructure we deal with today.
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