Electric City : The Lost History of Ford and Edison's American Utopia.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hager, Thomas.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cities and towns.

City planning.

City planning--United States--History--20th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (196 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Electric City

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Abrams, Inc., 2021.

Summary:

The extraordinary, unknown story of two giants of American history--Henry Ford and Thomas Edison--and their attempt to create an electric-powered city of tomorrow on the Tennessee River During the roaring twenties, two of the most revered and influential men in American business proposed to transform one of the country's poorest regions into a dream technological metropolis, a shining paradise of small farms, giant factories, and sparkling laboratories. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison's "Detroit of the South" would be ten times the size of Manhattan, powered by renewable energy, and free of air pollution. And it would reshape American society, introducing mass commuting by car, use a new kind of currency called "energy dollars," and have the added benefit (from Ford and Edison's view) of crippling the growth of socialism.The whole audacious scheme almost came off, with Southerners rallying to support what became known as the Ford Plan. But while some saw it as a way to conjure the future and reinvent the South, others saw it as one of the biggest land swindles of all time. They were all true.Electric City is a rich chronicle of the time and the social backdrop, and offers a fresh look at the lives of the two men who almost saw the project to fruition, the forces that came to oppose them, and what rose in its stead: a new kind of public corporation called the Tennessee Valley Authority, one of the greatest achievements of the New Deal. This is a history for a wide audience, including readers interested in American history, technology, politics, and the future.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Contents

Introduction

Part I. Muscle Shoals

Chapter 1. Where the River Sings

Chapter 2. The Wonder City at War

Chapter 3. Uncle Henry

Chapter 4. 8 a Second

Chapter 5. Camping with the President

Chapter 6. Politics and Public Relations

Chapter 7. The Twin Wizards

Chapter 8. Roadblock

Chapter 9. President Henry Ford

Part II. Boomtown

Chapter 10. Swampland and Whiskey

Chapter 11. A Party of One

Chapter 12. The 75-Mile City

Chapter 13. Gutters of Political Filth

Chapter 14. The Last Meeting

Chapter 15. Scandal

Part III. TVA

Chapter 16. The Alabama Ghost

Chapter 17. A New Deal

Chapter 18. "I'm Goin' to Die for the Government"

Chapter 19. Electric Nation

Chapter 20. A Sign in the Sky

Epilogue

Source Notes

Sources

Acknowledgments

Index of Searchable Terms.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781647000448

1647000440

OCLC:

1252915201