Marc Landry on Hydropower in the Alps

In this episode Alexander Krauss (Roosevelt Institute for American Studies) talks with Marc Landry (Associate Professor of History and Director of Center Austria, University of New Orleans) about his book Mountain Battery, The Alps, Water, and Power in the Fossil Fuel Age (Stanford University Press 2025). They speak about the transnational development of the Alpine region into a key energy landscape of modern Europe, with water serving as “white coal”, and reflect on the tension between conventional and environmental historical sources as well as the future of energy use in times of environmental crisis.