Working Nature

A CRITICAL HISTORY OF ENERGY

Daniela Russ argues that the category of ‘energy’ is best understood not in terms of particular material things but as a social relation to nature forged over 200 years of capitalist industrialization. Working Nature examines how engineers, scientists, and economists harnessed and circulated the products of nature despite social and natural resistance.

Daniela Russ is a historical sociologist based at the Global and European Studies Institute of the University of Leipzig, Germany. Her research explores the history of the energy economy in a global perspective, the conflicts around the decarbonization of the electric grid, and the theory and practice of Soviet energy planning. Her work has been published by outlets such as Contemporary European History, Historical Materialism, and Stanford University Press.