Books about Electrification from Amazon.com

First published in 1976, The Year the Lights Came On was Terry Kay's debut novel. Revolving around the electrification of rural northeast Georgia shortly after the end of World War II, the novel has become a classic coming-of-age story. Kay, now an acclaimed writer with an international following, has reread the novel with the eyes of a seasoned storyteller. Cutting here and adding there, Kay has enriched an already highly comical and poignant work. The Year the Lights Came On is ready to find its place in the hearts of a new generation..
Price: $12.36 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Jill Jonnes's compelling Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World offers a multi-sided tale of America's turn-of-the-20th-century quest for cheap, reliable electrical power. Along the way, the book profiles key personalities in both the science and industry of electrification and dramatizes the transformation of American society that accompanied the technological revolution. As her sub-title suggests, Jonnes's focus is on the three great personalities behind the building of the electricity industry. But, as she makes clear, the electrification of America was much more than a pathbreaking scientific quest. The genius of such poet-scientists as Nikola Tesla depended on the more finely tuned business skills of George Westinghouse and the towering capital of J.P. Morgan to achieve actualization. And even Thomas Edison and Westinghouse--innovative industrial combatants in the war between AC and DC current--were victims of the far more powerful and conservative financial forces of Wall Street. Indeed, for Jonnes, the story of electricity is as much about the legions of patent attorneys and bankers who controlled the flow of industry as it is about the circulation of current. Her sophisticated portrait of Gilded Age science, business, and society brings new light to the forces that underlie technological revolutions. As she reveals, it is not so much the great public men of science who directed the destiny of America's eventual empire of light; rather, the path was solidified by those men behind the scenes who were wise enough (and perhaps ruthless enough) to impose their legal, financial, and political dominance onto the scientific innovation--a valuable message for all eras. --Patrick O'Kelley.
Price: $19.93 [Notify me when price goes down.]

If millions of people in the developing world can use solar power, why can't we in North America? The question immediately arises from this fascinating account of the author's 12-year quest to bring solar power and light to people in the developing world who have no electricity

Chasing the Sun is a story of dreamers and doers who succeeded in their mission to make the world better by delivering nature's energy to poor people and by building organizations to put the sun at their service in practical, affordable, and effective ways. A green energy development narrative that is fun and eye-opening, the book is also part autobiography. Author Neville Williams' inspiring tale of trailblazing innovation describes:

His founding the nonprofit Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) in 1990, which promoted solar power for a decade by setting up pilot solar rural electrification programs in 11 developing countries, including Zimbabwe, India, Nepal, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and China
His launching of the commercial Solar Electric Light Company in 1997, which became the SELCO group of companies that has overcome daunting challenges to bring solar electricity to 50,000 families in India, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam

Filled with colorful characters, the book also features the enthusiasm of maverick devotees to the renewable energy boom of the 1980s and 1990s and their interplay with staid DC-based development institutions, as well as their unique perspective on global solutions to "energy poverty." It will be illuminating to all interested in the environment, development, renewable energy, socially responsible business, and our future at the end of the age of oil.

Neville Williams was an award-winning journalist for many years who also worked as the national media director for Greenpeace. He remains involved with SELCO and is currently working on domestic solar initiatives from his Washington, DC, home.

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Price: $9.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This book examines how multinational enterprises and international finance influenced the course of electrification around the world. Multinational enterprises played a crucial role in the spread of electric light and power from the 1870s through the first three decades of the twentieth century. Their role did not persist, as over time they exited through "domestication" (buy-outs, confiscations, or other withdrawals), so that by 1978 multinational enterprises in this sector had all but disappeared, replaced by electrical utility providers with national business structures. Yet, in recent years, there has been a vigorous revival. This book, a unique cooperative effort by the three authors and a group of experts from many countries, offers a fresh analysis of the history of multinational enterprise, taking an integrative approach, not simply comparing national electrification experiences, but supplying a truly global account..
Price: $40.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Set in the remote mining country of West Virginia in the late twenties, Lick Creek is the compelling story of a fiery young woman, Emily Jenkins, and what happens when progress -- and tragedy -- comes to her family's farm. Brad Kessler has a generous and keen eye for natural landscape and its power in human life. In his profound, dramatic first novel, he explores the complex intersections of faith, tradition, and innovation.

After the coal mine deaths of her father, brother, and the first man she loved, Emily struggles to support herself and her mother. When construction begins on the power lines, she blames the intruders for everything that has gone awry -- for her mother's increasing withdrawal from life and for lives already lost. Then, an electrical worker is struck by lightning. Brought to their farmhouse unconscious and badly injured, Joseph is taken in by Emily's mother, and Emily is seduced by the mystery of his past, his immigration from Russia, his own mother's deportations, and the world of immigrants forced to flee persecution in their homelands.

Moving from romance to high drama, Kessler illuminates the role of electricity in the transformation of rural life and the particular electricity between two vastly different people whose worlds and passions collide..
Price: $2.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Color laminated hardcover, 8.5x11", 177 pages."Chapter 1: The New York Central Putnam Division. "Chapter 2: New York Central's Getty Square Branch. "Chapter 3: New Haven Electrification Project. "Chapter 4: New York, Westchester & Boston. "Chapter 5: False Starts Forgotten and Finished. "Illustrated with many color and black and white images.".
Price: $46.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]