New book describes how whaling shaped U.S. culture even after petroleum replaced it
In an 1861 Vanity Fair cartoon, whales celebrate the advent of oil drilling, which replaced whaling as a source of fuel oil. That transition marked the invention of the concept of “energy” as a unified industry of labor, production and circulation based on the market for its consumption, Jones wrote. Credit: Vanity Fair/Jamie L. Jones The whaling industry helped drive industrialization…