TY - JOUR
AU - Aso, Michitake
AB - Book Reviews : 783 michitake aso An “Archaeology of Addiction” to Fossil Fuels in East Asia Victor Seow. Carbon Technocracy: Energy Regimes in Modern East Asia. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2022. 376 pp. $27.50 (paperback). Victor Seow’s Carbon Technocracy digs into the formation of fossil fuel-based energy systems across East Asia throughout the twentieth century. Seow’s his- torical analysis focuses on the extraction and utilization of coal within Japan and China, with particular emphasis on the Fushun coal mine. Located in northeast- ern China, in Manchuria, Fushun was widely recognized as a “Coal Capital” and serves well as a case study. The region experienced significant transitions within broader energy and political frameworks including the rise and fall of the Japanese empire, brief control under the Chinese nationalist regime, and subse- quent rule by the Communist Party. Readers of Diplomatic History should find many aspects of Seow’s book of interest, particularly its central argument. Employing the notion of coproduc- tion, Seow contends “that the mutual production of calorific and political power has defined our industrial modern age” (7). For centuries, Western political elites and their theorists have derived notions of power from the domains of sci- ence and 
TI - An “Archaeology of Addiction” to Fossil Fuels in East Asia
JO - Diplomatic History
DO - 10.1093/dh/dhae042
DA - 2024-06-28
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/an-archaeology-of-addiction-to-fossil-fuels-in-east-asia-xVGfaFissQ
SP - 783
EP - 785
VL - 48
IS - 5
DP - DeepDyve
ER -