Hughes (Rutgers Univ.) offers an ethnographic exploration of the possibilities and pitfalls inherent in the pursuit of sustainable energy. As an anthropologist and a strong advocate for a drastic shift in human energy consumption toward renewables, the author outlines the case for wind energy, including a call for people to learn how to live with wind turbines, value their appearance and ambient sounds, and move toward understanding them as part of a sustainable world. Based on six months of fieldwork conducted over three years in a small Spanish community surrounded by wind turbines, the text features local stories and interview extracts supported by the author's account of the community's effort to halt turbine development and to live with the turbines that continued to manifest regardless of their actions. Focusing on issues Hughes finds central to energy transition, he covers topics including the "ownership" of wind, the uncomfortable fit between wind turbines and social justice, fatalism as encountered in current climate change literature, and the impact of climate disputes within affected communities. This text will interest scholars undertaking energy research and related teaching and those working with ethnographic methods in fields including anthropology, geography, sociology, business, and engineering. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. General readers.

--J. Asselin, University of Lethbridge

Jodie Asselin

University of Lethbridge

Anthropologist Hughes (Energy Without a Conscience) investigates the history, politics, and culture of wind turbines in this eye-opening survey. He situates his study in a small village in Andalusia, Spain, where, in 2006, the locals protested a plan to install wind turbines nearby, claiming the project would destroy the aesthetics of their village and demanding they be compensated with "jobs, income, or both." The protest wasn't successful, raising questions for the author about the conflict between social justice, the privatization of natural resources, and ways of addressing climate change. Hughes argues that in order to achieve a sustainable world free of fossil fuels, people must find a compromise that doesn't just enrich corporations and landowners, and proposes that people can learn to love wind turbines: citizens, he writes, could own the energy they produce, and windmills could be designed with an eye for beauty and an appreciation of the land. At times, the analysis strays into explorations of literary works such as that of Cervantes, who called windmills "the most monstrous objects on the landscape," making for a fascinating if digressive account. Eloquent and incisive, this is an important contribution to climate change discourse. (Oct.)