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When they hid the fire a history of electricity and invisible energy in America
Author
Title
When they hid the fire [electronic resource] : a history of electricity and invisible energy in America / Daniel French.
ISBN
9780822981930
0822981939
9780822964254
0822964252
Published
Baltimore, Maryland : Project Muse, 2017 (Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2015)
Pittsburgh, Pa. : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2017] (Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2015)
Physical Description
1 online resource (1 PDF (xi, 250 pages)).
Local Notes
Access is available to the Yale community.
Notes
Issued as part of UPCC book collections on Project MUSE.
Description based on print version record.
Access and use
Access restricted by licensing agreement.
Summary
When They Hid the Fire examines the American social perceptions of electricity as an energy technology that were adopted between the mid-nineteenth and early decades of the twentieth centuries. Arguing that both technical and cultural factors played a role, Daniel French shows how electricity became an invisible and abstract form of energy in American society. As technological advancements allowed for an increasing physical distance between power generation and power consumption, the commodity of electricity became consciously detached from the environmentally destructive fire and coal that produced it. This development, along with cultural forces, led the public to define electricity as mysterious, utopian, and an alternative to nearby fire-based energy sources. With its adoption occurring simultaneously with Progressivism and consumerism, electricity use was encouraged and seen as an integral part of improvement and modernity, leading Americans to culturally construct electricity as unlimited and environmentally inconsequential--a newfound "basic right" of life in the United States.
Variant and related titles
UPCC book collections on Project MUSE.
Project MUSE – UPCC 2017 Complete.
Other formats
Print version:
Format
Books / Online
Language
English
Added to Catalog
April 04, 2017
Series
Intersections: environment, science, technology
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 204-230) and index.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
1. English roots, utopia found and lost
2. The energy revolution and the ascendancy of coal
3. The conundrum of smoke and visible energy
4. Technology and energy in the abstract
5. Of fluids, fields, and wizards
6. Energy, utopia, and the American mind
7. Turbines, coal, and convenience
Conclusion.
Subjects
Also listed under
Project Muse, distributor.
Project Muse.
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