Brian C. Black

Dr. Brian Black is Professor of History and Environmental Studies at Penn State Altoona, where he currently also serves as Head of Arts and Humanities. His research emphasis is on the landscape and environmental history of North America, particularly in relation to the harvest and use of energy resources. He is the author of several books, including the award-winning Petrolia: The Landscape of America's First Oil Boom (Johns Hopkins, 2003), Crude Reality: Petroleum in World History (Rowman and Littlefield, 2012), and the forthcoming Contesting Gettysburg: Preserving a Cherished American Landscape, and has edited and contributed to numerous others. He is a former editor of Pennsylvania History and has served on the editorial staffs of Scholastic magazines, American Studies, the Journal of Economic History, MHQ: Military History Quarterly, The Gettysburg Review, and Audubon. Currently, he is writing about 20th century petroleum consumption.