New Book: Peak Oil: Apocalyptic Environmentalism and Libertarian Political Culture

An exciting new book by Matthew Schneider-Mayerson entitled Peak Oil: Apocalyptic Environmentalism and Libertarian Political Culture has been published by the University of Chicago Press.

The primary focus of the book is on the broader topic of peak oil  based on two large surveys Schneider-Mayerson conducted with “peakists” (people who believe that the global oil production is nearing or has already surpassed its peak and that this event signals a dramatic shift that will occur in global economics and society).

To contextualize this issue, Schneider-Mayerson focuses on environmental media a good deal throughout the book, including one chapter examining the influence of disaster films on conceptions of environmental crisis in the present and future, and another chapter on post-eco-apocalyptic white masculinity as it has been represented in Mad Max and the TV show Revolution.

Congrats to Matthew on this tremendous achievement. I have a feeling that folks will be keen to pair this book with Stephanie LeMenager’s recent book Living Oil and some of the great work by ecocinema and ecomedia scholars on this issue as well, such as Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann’s Film Quarterly article on the early Lumiere film “Oil Wells of Baku,” Peter C. Rollin’s chapter “Tulsa as an Oil Field Film: A Study of Ecological Ambivalence” in the collection The Landscape of Hollywood Westerns, and Nadia Bozak’s 2012 book, The Cinematic Footprint: Lights, Camera, Natural Resources.