The Age of Coal. A European History, 1750 until the present

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Franz-Josef Brüggemeier
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2015 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 277231255

When in 2018 the mining of coal stops in Germany an epoch will come to an end whose importance for the history of Europe over the last 250 years can not be overstated. In Germany and all over Europe this souce of energy decisively shaped the areas of politics, economics, society and culture; it left deep marks in everyday life as as well as in high culture and brought about massive interventions in nature and the environment of which the increase in CO2 currently is the most pressing. The importance of coal, therefore, goes far beyond providing a convenient source a energy - as the project resp. the book will show.An impressive number of publications on various aspects of coal mining for the different European countries already exists. However, general surveys are rare, inspite of the multi-volume anthologies covering Great Britain and Germany which will be completed within the next year or two. There are no such surveys for other European countries, and this holds especially true for a European history of coal. This situation is regrettable since the age of coal can only be understood in a wider European context. It is the aim of the project to write such a monograph, drawing upon the literature that is already available. In doing so, this monograph will try to offer more than a summary - although this in itself is quite a challenge. The project will go beyond the established fields of research and incorporate recent publications dealing with gender, materiality and environmental consequences of coal mining. These publications offer new insights, but so far their number is fairly small and they cover only some regions resp. countries. As a consequence, the project will link these findings and put them in a wider temporal, territorial und comparative resp. transnational perspective. Special emphasis will be given to the debate about the 'Great Divergence' which offers the opportunity to place developments in Europe into a global context. Finally, the thesis of whether we can sepak of a 'Carbon Democracy' will also be discussed.In addition to existing literature the project will also be based on the wide ranging research undertaken by the applicant. I started my academic career with a Ph.D. which looked at miners in the Ruhr. Over the following years, I researched different areas and aspects of the 'Age of Coal' and I would like to think that I possess the necessary qualifications to successfully complete the undoubtedly ambitious project. This would however, require a grant from the DFG to be relieved from my teaching obligations for two terms resp. 12 months so that the publication can appear in 2018 - when coal mining ends in Germany.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants