This article, written mainly by Alison Kitson with reflections on classroom experience from Nebiat Michael, focuses on teaching about the industrial revolution. It offers new ways of framing the topic, both as a result of the ‘energy binge’ on which modern civilisation is built and as the third of four fundamental turning points in the relationship between humans and the rest of nature. The article introduces three different approaches to incorporating a focus on energy in history classrooms. The first encourages teachers to begin by ‘zooming out’ to provide a brief history of energy through time, the second offers ways of challenging students’ sense of inevitability, while the third seeks to draw on history to support more sustainable futures...