Caleb Wellum’s Energizing Neoliberalism offers a new interpretation of how the 1970s energy crises reshaped American political culture. Most historians treat the crisis as a problem of oil shortages or Middle Eastern politics. Wellum sees it differently. He argues that Americans constructed the energy crisis through culture, media, and politics. The crisis was not a “true” crisis but rather a “constructed cultural and discursive” event that accelerated the rise of neoliberalism in the United States (3). This process pushed the country toward free-market solutions and problematic financial speculation. Wellum develops his argument in five chapters. First, he examines how postwar Read more