Power and the People: A History of British Energy (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781836741008)

The argument for a revolution in the ownership of our national energy system, from a leading industry insider.

The energy crisis of the early 2020s exposed the true nature of Britain's energy system: fragile, fragmented, comically complicated, and hopelessly dependent on imported fossil fuels. How did it come to this? Power and the People uncovers the hidden history of British energy from the Victorians to the present.

The book tells the story of the private and publicly owned organisations that built the energy system, from local municipal electricity companies in the early twentieth century, to state-owned enterprises that built infrastructure at a massive scale and breakneck speed from 1926 to 1979. The frenzied construction bonanza changed the landscape of Britain and fabric of everyday life for citizens.

From the 1980s the electricity and gas industries were broken apart and sold off. Privatization worked for a short time but then the model started to break down. Climate change introduced a new problem. In response, the privatised model was gradually adapted and over decades became a complex and contradictory system that is crumbling. Today, we're living under a zombie system that lurches from crisis to crisis. But there is hope. Arthur Downing offers an alternative future of what is possible, based on lessons from our own past.

Author: Arthur Downing
ISBN-10: 1836741006
ISBN-13: 9781836741008
Publisher: Verso
Language: English
Published: 09/01/2026
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.30h x 5.92w x 1.11d