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The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future
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by Gretchen BakkeGretchen Bakke
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Overview
A revelatory look at our national power gridhow it developed, its current flaws, and how it must be completely reimagined for our fast-approaching energy future.
America's electrical grid, an engineering triumph of the twentieth century, is turning out to be a poor fit for the present. It's not just that the grid has grown old and is now in dire need of basic repair. Today, as we invest great hope in new energy sourcessolar, wind, and other alternativesthe grid is what stands most firmly in the way of a brighter energy future. If we hope to realize this future, we need to reimagine the grid according to twenty-first-century values. It's a project which forces visionaries to work with bureaucrats, legislators with storm-flattened communities, moneymen with hippies, and the left with the right. And though it might not yet be obvious, this revolution is already well under way.
Cultural anthropologist Gretchen Bakke unveils the many facets of America's energy infrastructure, its most dynamic moments and its most stable ones, and its essential role in personal and national life. The grid, she argues, is an essentially American artifact, one which developed with us: a product of bold expansion, the occasional foolhardy vision, some genius technologies, and constant improvisation. Most of all, her focus is on how Americans are changing the grid right now, sometimes with gumption and big dreams and sometimes with legislation or the brandishing of guns.
The Grid tellsentertainingly, perceptivelythe story of what has been called "the largest machine in the world": its fascinating history, its problematic present, and its potential role in a brighter, cleaner future.
America's electrical grid, an engineering triumph of the twentieth century, is turning out to be a poor fit for the present. It's not just that the grid has grown old and is now in dire need of basic repair. Today, as we invest great hope in new energy sourcessolar, wind, and other alternativesthe grid is what stands most firmly in the way of a brighter energy future. If we hope to realize this future, we need to reimagine the grid according to twenty-first-century values. It's a project which forces visionaries to work with bureaucrats, legislators with storm-flattened communities, moneymen with hippies, and the left with the right. And though it might not yet be obvious, this revolution is already well under way.
Cultural anthropologist Gretchen Bakke unveils the many facets of America's energy infrastructure, its most dynamic moments and its most stable ones, and its essential role in personal and national life. The grid, she argues, is an essentially American artifact, one which developed with us: a product of bold expansion, the occasional foolhardy vision, some genius technologies, and constant improvisation. Most of all, her focus is on how Americans are changing the grid right now, sometimes with gumption and big dreams and sometimes with legislation or the brandishing of guns.
The Grid tellsentertainingly, perceptivelythe story of what has been called "the largest machine in the world": its fascinating history, its problematic present, and its potential role in a brighter, cleaner future.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781632865687 |
---|---|
Publisher: | Bloomsbury USA |
Publication date: | 07/11/2017 |
Pages: | 384 |
Sales rank: | 125,654 |
Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d) |
About the Author
Gretchen Bakke holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in Cultural Anthropology. Her work focuses on the chaos and creativity that emerges during social, cultural, and technological transitions. For the past decade she has been researching and writing about the changing culture of electricity in the United States. She is a former fellow in Wesleyan University's Science in Society Program, a former Fulbright fellow, and is currently an assistant professor of anthropology at McGill University. Born in Portland, Oregon, Bakke lives in Montreal.
Table of Contents
Introduction xi
Chapter 1 The Way of the Wind 1
Chapter 2 How the Grid Got Its Wires 25
Chapter 3 The Consolidation of Power 57
Chapter 4 The Cardigan Path 85
Chapter 5 Things Fall Apart 115
Chapter 6 Two Birds, One Stone 149
Chapter 7 A Tale of Two Storms 185
Chapter 8 In Search of the Holy Grail 219
Chapter 9 American Zeitgeist 255
Afterword: Contemplating Death in the Afternoon 291
Acknowledgments 293
Notes 295
Index 343
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