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(More customer reviews)Did you know, in the early days of electricity, the power went off at 11:00 pm each night? Or that electricity was billed at a flat rate of $1 per day? Or that most homes had only one or two outlets and a light bulb hanging from a string?
This book is a compendium of both fascinating facts and substantial histories of the development of residential electrical usage in our country.
I love old houses and historical information, and perhaps because of that, I found this book to be a fascinating read. Some parts of it were a wee bit dry, where he delved into some of the more technical aspects of this modern utility, but the majority of the book was a treasure.
After reading this book, and gaining an better understanding of the history of electricity, I'd say, without hesitation, that introducing the modern convenience of electrical current into our homes may be the most significant discovery of the last 500 years.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology, 1880-1940
How did electricity enter everyday life in America? Using Muncie, Indiana- the Lynds' now iconic Middletown - as a touchstone, David Nye explores howelectricity seeped into and redefined American culture. With an eye for tellingdetails from archival sources and a broad understanding of cultural and socialhistory, he creates a thought-provoking panorama of a technology fundamental tomodern life.Emphasizing the experiences of ordinary men and women rather than thelives of inventors and entrepreneurs, Nye treats electrification as a set oftechnical possibilities that were selectively adopted to create the streetcarsuburb, the amusement park, the "Great White Way," the assembly line, theelectrified home, and the industrialized farm. He shows how electricity touchedevery part of American life, how it became an extension of political ideologies, howit virtually created the image of the modern city, and how it even pervadedcolloquial speech, confirming the values of high energy and speed that have becomehallmarks of the twentieth century. He also pursues the social meaning ofelectrification as expressed in utopian ideas and exhibits at world's fairs, andexplores the evocation of electrical landscapes in painting, literature, andphotography.Electrifying America combines chronology and topicality to examine themajor forms of light and power as they came into general use. It shows that in thecity electrification promoted a more varied landscape and made possible new artforms and new consumption environments. In the factory, electricity permitted acomplete redesign of the size and scale of operations, shifting power away from theshop floor to managers. Electrical appliances redefined domestic work andtransformed the landscape of the home, while on the farm electricity laid thefoundation for today's agribusiness.David E. Nye teaches American history at theUniversity of Copenhagen. He has published books on Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, aswell as Image Worlds, a study of photography and corporate identities at GeneralElectric.
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