Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil

Timothy Mitchell

Oct 2023 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Liam Gerrard

About this audiobook

Oil is a curse, it is often said, that condemns the countries producing it to an existence defined by war, corruption, and enormous inequality. Carbon Democracy tells a more complex story, arguing that no nation escapes the political consequences of our collective dependence on oil. It shapes the body politic both in regions such as the Middle East, which rely upon revenues from oil production, and in the places that have the greatest demand for energy. Coal was a source of energy so open to disruption that oligarchies in the West became vulnerable to mass demands for democracy. In the mid-twentieth century, however, the development of cheap and abundant energy from oil offered a means to reduce this vulnerability to democratic pressures. The abundance of oil made it possible to reorganize political life around the management of something now called "the economy". The politics of the West became dependent on an undemocratic Middle East. In the twenty-first century, the oil-based forms of modern democratic politics have become unsustainable. Foreign intervention and military rule are faltering in the Middle East, while governments everywhere appear incapable of addressing the crises that threaten to end the age of carbon democracy-the disappearance of cheap energy and the carbon-fueled collapse of the ecological order.

About the author

Timothy Mitchell teaches at Columbia University. His books include Colonising Egypt, Rule of Experts, and Carbon Democracy.

Liam Gerrard is an award-winning voice artist with over ten years of experience working in every field of the voice industry, as well as a highly acclaimed stage and screen actor. A 2017 Audie Award nominee, he has narrated over thirty audiobooks in a wide range of genres and styles.