History of America’s Electric Grid

Americans in Freezing Temps Without Power!

After WWII, Americans assumed that electric power would always be available. So no wonder that when we experienced our first massive power outage back in the 1960s… Americans were shocked!

But as our grids become ever more complex, we experience more power outages caused by storms or cascading blackouts that start with a small error!

This is the story of the largest and most sophisticated grid in the world — the history of a superpower’s power infrastructure, from Edison, Tesla and Westinghouse to the most high-tech network systems, which continue to experience blackouts.

My guest is Dr. Julie Cohn. She is a Nonresident Scholar at the Center for Energy Studies at the Baker Institute for Public Policy in Rice University, and also a research historian in the Center for Public History at the University of Houston. She is the author of The Grid: Biography of an American Technology, a 2017 book published by MIT Press. (Amazon link).

To learn more about Dr. Cohn, you can visit her academic homepage.

And click here to listen: PODCAST

In addition, below are links to another fascinating episode:
S1E33: History of America’s Infrastructure, Dr. Petroski

I hope you enjoy these episodes.

Adel
Host of History Behind News Podcast