The Subterranean Forest

Part I Energy Systems and Social Evolution: Palaeolithic Hunter-gatherer Societies; The Neolithic Revolution and the Problem of Dynamics; Traditional Agriculture - A Controlled Solar Energy System; The Structure of the Agrarian Energy System; The Dynamics of Agrarian Society; Crisis and Transformation; The Industrial System and Fossil Energy. Part II Forest and Wood in Preindustrial Germany: ;Natural Foundations The forest as a component of the agricultural biotope; Forms of forest use; The transportation problem; Preindustrial Wood Consumption; Commercial consumption; Iron smelting; Private households; Regulation Problems. Part III England - Coal in the Industrial Revolution: Substitution of Wood by Coal; Why was coal first used in England?; The rise and decline of coal consumption in the Middle Ages; A new rise; Resistance to coal burning; Coal as trump in the trade war; Land gained with coal use; Was England dependent on coal?; Wood and Coal in Iron Smelting; Technical problems; Fuel shortage and stagnation; The breakthrough in iron smelting; Transport and Steam Power; Transportation of coal; Power sources for draining coal pits; From the steam pump to the rotating steam engine; Significance of Coal in the Industrial Revolution. Part IV Germany in the 18th Century - Wood Crisis and Strategies for Solutions: Conserving Wood; Fuel conserving stoves; Problems in the commercial field; Functional Separation of Agriculture and Forestry; Substitution for Wood; Substitution of wood by coal; State measures in favour of coal; Resistance and prejudices; Ascendancy of coal; Was the Wood Crisis an Energy Crisis?. Part V Perceptions of Fossil Energy: The Finiteness of Fossil Fuels; Classical Political Economy and the Stationary State; Jevons and the Contraction of the Industrial System; Nuclear or Solar Energy.