Charged: A History of Batteries and Lessons for a Clean Energy Future

2023 Cundill History Prize Finalist 

In Charged, James Morton Turner unpacks the history of batteries to explore why solving “the battery problem” is critical to a clean energy transition. At a time when climate activists focus on what a clean energy future will create “sustainability, resiliency, & climate justice” considering the history of batteries offers a sharp reminder of what building a clean energy future will consume “lithium, graphite, nickel, & other specialized materials.” With new insight on questions of justice and sustainability, Turner draws on the past for crucial lessons that will help us build a clean energy future, from the ground up.

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James Morton Turner is Professor of Environmental Studies at Wellesley College. He is author of The Promise of Wilderness: American Environmental Politics Since 1964 & co-author of The Republican Reversal: Conservatives & the Environment from Nixon to Trump.