{"product_id":"powering-colonialism-nathan-n-kapoor-9780822948872","title":"Powering Colonialism: Electrification, Extraction, and Empire in Aotearoa New Zealand","description":"\u003ci\u003ePowering Colonialism \u003c\/i\u003eexplores the history of electrification and its relationship to colonialism in Aotearoa New Zealand. Exploitative electric infrastructure, Nathan N. Kapoor argues, was not inevitable, and it was not determined by geography or a coincidence of colonization--it was by design. By the twenty-first century, hydropower provided more than half the country's electricity. Although it is now lauded as a renewable energy source, advocates for the earliest hydroelectrification schemes were more concerned with extracting greater profits and highlighting British technological superiority. Settlers, miners, and politicians saw electricity as a tool for achieving modernity, wealth, and self-sufficiency, and Aotearoa New Zealand's vast river system, once a barrier to colonial expansion, was now used to justify it. The electrification projects Kapoor examines in \u003ci\u003ePowering Colonialism\u003c\/i\u003e--from hydroelectric power for gold mining in the 1880s to Māori-led geothermal energy plants in use today--illustrate how, from the very beginning of Aotearoa New Zealand's transition to electric power, settlers designed and used electric power systems in service to their colonial mission.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Nathan N. Kapoor\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0822948877\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780822948872\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Pittsburgh Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/17\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 264\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Nathan N. Kapoor","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48621637796095,"sku":"9780822948872","price":120.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/powering-colonialism-nathan-n-kapoor-9780822948872","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}