The first detailed study of the ‘peak oil movement,’ this book combines sociology, literary criticism, history and environmental studies to explore an early twenty-first century environmental social movement and its implications for American politics, contemporary social movements, and environmental issues, including climate change. It describes the ideology of ‘peakism’ and the actions taken by over 100,000 peak oil believers to prepare for the post-carbon future, and places this group in the historical context of beliefs about scarcity and abundance in recent American history. A group of lef ... More

The first detailed study of the ‘peak oil movement,’ this book combines sociology, literary criticism, history and environmental studies to explore an early twenty-first century environmental social movement and its implications for American politics, contemporary social movements, and environmental issues, including climate change. It describes the ideology of ‘peakism’ and the actions taken by over 100,000 peak oil believers to prepare for the post-carbon future, and places this group in the historical context of beliefs about scarcity and abundance in recent American history. A group of leftists who largely responded as survivalists to a perceived environmental crisis, Peak Politics views the peak oil movement as an indicator of the rise of libertarian ideals in American political culture over the last four decades, and explores the role of digital technologies in this ‘libertarian shift.’ It argues that while ‘peakists’ overestimated the rapidity and consequences of energy depletion, they present an important case study of proportionate responses to the environmental crises of our current age, the Anthropocene, such as climate change and resource depletion. Their experiences provide an instructive study of the social organization of denial of environmental problems; the role of oil in modern life; the political impact of digital technologies; the political quiescence of some leftist environmentalists; the racial and gender dynamics of post-apocalyptic fantasies; and the convergence of global environmental problems and libertarian political solutions.