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The grid : the fraying wires between Americans and our energy future / Gretchen Bakke.
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View online- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Bakke, Gretchen Anna, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Electric power systems--Technological innovations--United States.
- Electric power systems.
- Electric power distribution--United States--History.
- Electric power distribution.
- Clean energy--United States.
- Clean energy.
- Electric power failures--United States.
- Electric power failures.
- Energy policy--Social aspects--United States.
- Energy policy.
- Energy policy--Social aspects.
- History.
- Electric power systems--Technological innovations.
- United States.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (xxx, 352 pages) : illustrations, map, charts
- Edition:
- Paperback edition.
- Place of Publication:
- New York, NY : Bloomsbury, 2017.
- System Details:
- text file
- Summary:
- 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 sources-solar, wind, and other alternatives-the 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 tells-entertainingly, perceptively-the 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. Book jacket.
- Contents:
- The Way of the Wind
- How the Grid Got Its Wires
- The Consolidation of Power
- The Cardigan Path
- Things Fall Apart
- Two Birds, One Stone
- A Tale of Two Storms
- In Search of the Holy Grail
- American Zeitgeist
- Afterword: Contemplating Death in the Afternoon.
- Notes:
- Originally published in hardcover by Bloomsbury in 2016.
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 295-342) and index.
- Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI Available via World Wide Web.
- Description based on print version record.
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Anthony Thomas Abraham Collection Endowment Fund in Energy Infrastructure.
- ISBN:
- 9781620401248
- 162040124X
- Publisher Number:
- 99983235394
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license.
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