New Books in Science, Technology, and Society Wout Saelens, "Fossil Consumerism: Energy, Ecology and Everyday Life in the Early Modern Low Countries" (Leuven UP, 2026)
Apr 4, 2026
Wout Saelens, an early modern historian of household energy and pollution, discusses how peat and coal reshaped warmth, light and domestic life in the Low Countries. He traces changing fireplaces, stoves and cooking practices. He examines shifting perceptions of pollution and the gendered, hidden labor that made home comforts possible.
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Homes Start The Fossil Transition
- Early household fossilization began before factories as households shifted from wood to peat and coal for warmth, light and domestic comfort.
- Wout Saelens links energy history, consumer history, and environmental history to show homes drove a qualitative and quantitative rise in energy use.
Low Countries Offer A Natural Energy Comparison
- The Early Modern Low Countries are a useful laboratory because they were early adopters and split into a peat-consuming North and a coal-using South.
- The North shows continuity with peat; the South shows an 18th-century shift to coal and stoves, enabling comparative causal testing.
Fuel Types Reshaped Household Technology
- Different fuels required different household technologies: coal favored cast-iron stoves while peat supported footstoves and modified fireplaces.
- These changes altered cooking (from large cauldrons to pans) and enabled heating of multiple rooms instead of only the kitchen.
