Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology

David E. Nye, MIT Press, 1990. ISBN 0-262-64030-9.

Nye begins his work with his own definition of technology: "A technology is not merely a system of machines with certain functions; it is part of a social world". (p. ix) Thus he begins his discussion of the social effects of the electrification of America.

The town of Muncie, Indiana in 1885 serves as the stage for a brief introduction to the electrification event as a typical American might have experienced it. The choices that individuals, corporations, and institutions made determined the course of electrification.

The introduction of electrical street lighting and the development of the "Great White Way" in cities around the country was an expression not just of the desire for safer, better-lit streets, but also was ". . . an instrument of cultural expression providing symbolic validation of the urban industrial order." (p. 73) The ability to transform the previously dark streets of the city into well-lit showcases of commerce and technology served to alter the city landscape and even 'edit' the look of the city by what was (and wasn't) lit. Nye uses the concept of the technological sublime (the strengthening and deepening of the observer's mind by contemplation of technology) to illustrate the reaction to the new lighting technology in its most impressive instances.

The application of electricity to streetcars resulted in the acceleration of changes already at work in the city. The electric trolley could go faster, farther, and up steeper hills than the horse-drawn streetcar, and at less expense. This resulted in an accelerated exodus from urban to suburban living. At the same time, the desire of the traction companies to maximize the return on their investments led them to branch out into real estate, street lighting, wholesale power sales, and even amusement parks. Ultimately the rise of the automobile and rising prices spelled the end of the electric trolley.

Electrification of factories and homes was not merely a substitution of electrical devices for corresponding non-electrical ones. The rise of the technical elite as a necessary component of corporate electrification resulted in fundamental changes in the relationship between labor and management; the enhanced capabilities of new household appliances resulted in a shift in the labor balance between husbands and wives as well as changed expectations.

Rural electrification took place not as the result of market forces, but in spite of them, by government intervention. Rural electrification increased productivity and made possible the increased urbanization we see today.

Electricity has become so much a part of the modern world that ". . . the self and the electrified world have intertwined." (p. 390) Electricity has changed our view of the world and our expectations of the future.

Copyright 1996 by Gordon Zaft