factories

In this Springs article, historian J. R. McNeill considers Chicago’s steel industry both past and present, and the history of the land.

Barbara Freese takes us on a rich historical journey that begins hundreds of millions of years ago and spans the globe. Coal is a captivating narrative about an ordinary substance with an extraordinary impact on human civilization.

Vaclav Smil shows why energy transitions are inherently complex and prolonged affairs, and how ignoring this raises unrealistic expectations that the United States and other global economies can be weaned quickly from a primary dependency on fossil fuels.

The invention of the spinning jenny in 1764 sparked a movement that would change the lives of people worldwide: the rapid mechanization of the textile industry spurred a period of economic growth.