There are technological differences between now and the early 1800's that are not oil-related, the most important of which is electricity. In fact, the oil economy is not substantially new in that respect. The European economy went through burning wood, then wood cal, then when that ran out started mining coal in earnest, and getting gas from coal mines, then got oil... Electrical technology was only developed in the latter third of the 19th century. So you could argue that the last 150 years have been about building an electricity-based civilization on the back of fossil fuels, which themselves replaced the burning of biomass.
There's no going back to the 1800's, in other words, even if oil runs out we'll be in a better technological environment. The only problem is the sustainability of the population. When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes
Like I mentioned, the "book is post-apocalyptic disaster porn". In Kunstler's post-peak oil U.S., society has broken down sufficiently that the infrastructure has deteriorated, thus there is irregular or no electrical service. He doesn't go into details, but for his setting to work -- electricity does not.
