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A sweeping history of the electric light revolution and the birth of modern America
The late nineteenth century was a period of explosive technological creativity, but more than any other invention, Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulb marked the arrival of modernity, transforming its inventor into a mythic figure and avatar of an era. In The Age of Edison, award-winning author and historian Ernest Freeberg weaves a narrative that reaches from Coney Island and Broadway to the tiniest towns of rural America, tracing the progress of electric light through the reactions of everyone who saw it and capturing the wonder Edison’s invention inspired. It is a quintessentially American story of ingenuity, ambition, and possibility in which the greater forces of progress and change are made by one of our most humble and ubiquitous objects.
- Sales Rank: #280464 in eBooks
- Published on: 2013-02-21
- Released on: 2013-02-21
- Format: Kindle eBook
From Booklist
A history of electric light’s fledgling decades, Freeberg’s insightful work restores a range of primal social reactions to the new form of illumination. These are easily forgotten in the present, when power companies and sources of electrical generation are politically contentious. In the 1880s, banishing night with a light switch astounded multitudes, who thronged civic events and spectacular exhibitions to marvel at artificial day. Acknowledging Edison’s contemporary and continuing association with the electrical revolution, Freeberg at the outset corrects the impression, noting that arc lighting initially competed with Edison’s incandescent bulb but declined in popularity because of the comparative harshness of its glare. Recounting local incidents and accidents of various American cities’ introduction to electricity, Freeberg tracks its rapid departure from Edison’s workshop toward becoming a professional and corporate industry. Progressive critics arose who proposed its nationalization, while commentators catering to the consumer dwelt on refining the aesthetics of lighting in the home and in entertainment venues. Fans of the history of technology will revel in Freeberg’s discussion of the profound social effects of the humble light bulb. --Gilbert Taylor
Review
"Mr. Freeberg's broad research adds up to a vivid social history with parallels for today's technology innovators and for those who wish to increase their number. It underscores the point that the work of Edison and other pioneers of light took place in an unusual setting, a period in which American invention was remarkably active and fertile... The Age of Edison comes at a fitting time, the close of the era of the incandescent light. When the old stocks of incandescents run out, it may be the end of pleasant illumination at a cheap price—that is, until another Thomas Edison finds a way."
—The Wall Street Journal
“Freeberg takes us on a captivating intellectual adventure that offers long-forgotten stories of the birth pangs of the electrical age that are amusing, surprising and tragic.”
—Washington Post
"One of the many pleasures of Age of Edison, Ernest Freeberg's engaging history of the spread of electricity throughout the United States, is that he captures the excitement and wonder of those early days, when 'a machine that could create enough cheap and powerful light to hold the night at bay' promised 'liberation from one of the primordial limits imposed by nature on the human will'... Freeberg's thoughtful and thought-provoking book quietly suggests that, to properly distribute and control such a powerful force, commercial initiative and a sense of civic responsibility were equally essential."
—Los Angeles Times
"A dynamo of a book powered by an infectious enthusiasm for the can-do spirit of Edison and rival geniuses racing to turn night into day. Freeberg writes with verve and uncommon clarity, all the while deeply enriching our understanding of an age raring to embrace modernity."
—A. Roger Ekirch, author of At Day's Close: Night in Times Past
"Ernest Freeberg's fascinating account of the arrival and impact of electric lighting in America fills an important gap in the history of this subject. This well-written and insightful book should appeal both to scholars and lay readers, all of whom will learn much about the complex history of the adoption of this new technology."
—Paul Israel, author of Edison: A Life of Invention; General Editor, The Thomas Edison Papers
"Freeberg's deft social history explores a remarkable period in America's cultural and economic development. By understanding the post-Edison world we can see how nightlife really began; how our workdays grew considerably longer; and how the urban gloom was extinguished by the commerce of illumination."
—Jon Gertner, author of The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
Outstanding Academic Title of 2014, Choice
About the Author
Ernest Freeberg is a distinguished professor of humanities in the history department at the University of Tennessee. He is the author of The Education of Laura Bridgman and Democracy’s Prisoner, which was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist and winner of the David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Legal History and the Eli M. Oboler Award from the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Roundtable. Freeberg is a distinguished lecturer for the Organization of American Historians and has produced a number of public radio documentaries on historical themes.
Most helpful customer reviews
42 of 44 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent. "And then there was light..."
By D. Graves
While I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about Edison and the miracles of Menlo Park, I felt - upon reading this book - rather ignorant of the import and impact the advent of electric light had on American society. Five years ago, here in New Hampshire, an ice storm knocked out power for eleven days; and eleven long, dimly lit nights. Even with the best of modern gas lamps, candles and flashlights, it was a different world without electric light. What the author here, Freeberg, does is walk us through the change in worlds Edison provided - out of the darkness and into the light.
What this excellent book details is not just the impact of the incandescent light bulb on individual lives but, more importantly, its transformative effect on society and America's place in the world. The focus of the Edison Electric Light Company was not in making light bulbs but in a "complete lighting system" - the grid: electric light for all. The author does a marvelous job in giving us a panoramic view of the myriad events and effects of Edison's revolution. It really is a fascinating read.
For example, there were many who fought against Edison in the belief that his light was 'unnatural', that it endangered family togetherness (families usually gathered around one oil lamp at night). And when cities became lighted at night on a grand scale, people in the dark distances stood and stared at what they considered a magnificent, otherworldly display. In the cities, crowds gathered when linemen worked, not in fascination of these men connecting wires but in the good chance that a lineman would suffer a spectacular death by electrocution, a rather common occurrence. On the positive side, American manufacturing output soared, with factories being able to add second and third shifts of production. There is so much more but this review has become a bit long. In conclusion, this is an excellent, engaging book on an important historical invention. Definitely five stars.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Impact on America
By Robert G. Rich, Jr.
This is mostly an account of the significant changes that electric light brought to the cities and society of the United States at the end of the 19th century. There are interesting facts that for me illuminated the importance to my parents (both born in the 19th century) of such things as the Chicago Exposition and the "worlds fairs," or the iconic nature of Coney Island, all of which, ablaze with light, dazzled a generation. However, despite marshalling considerable information, the book is not very well written or well organized and therefore somewhat boring to read. Despite Edison in the title, this is neither a biography nor a balanced discussion of his accomplishments. Furthermore the big technical and economic electricity issue of the time, pitting the option of alternating current power against direct current (Edison's choice) for large scale electrification, and such an internationally and scientifically prominent competitor of Edison as Nikola Tesla, are hardly mentioned. This was a choice of my local book club or I probably would have merely skimmed it. That should be sufficient for most interested readers.
15 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
Brilliant Tale of the Light Bulb - A Tale for Many Technologies
By Dr. Terrence McGarty
The Age of Edison is a compelling tale of technological innovation and the machinations and creations of all those who participated. At the center is Edison, whose fame was a creation of what he accomplished, what he proclaimed, and what the Press found as good news copy, independent of the reality of what was truly happening. I live but a short distance from Edison’s last lab was in West Orange in New Jersey and it is now a National Parks site. Much of what Edison did is memorialized by the many labs, books, and remnants of his hundreds of “inventions”. Of course next to this National Landmark is the Edison battery factory which one may suppose is left in a state of total collapse because the cleanup of the site would be astronomical, but those factors are somewhat missing from the tale.
The book is exceptionally well written and it is really a tale of the electric light, with Edison cast as someone who comes and goes, and yet has a lasting influence. Like so many technological advances there is usually not one person, but many competing for the prize. The goal was clear, light, but the path uncertain. The author details the competition between the arc light and the incandescent light, the need for an infrastructure, and the problems of that infrastructure. Power lines grew, collided with humanity, and in urban areas were driven underground. However they remained to be smashed down during hurricane Sandy, almost 150 years after all of this began. Thus the power industry, unlike the electronics industry rapidly grew, and then froze, for almost a century. But this is a tale of the light bulb, perhaps the most significant driver of that industry.
The author opens with the inventing of the light bulb. He wonderfully shows with balance and insight many if not most of the players during this time. Edison was thus one of many, but perhaps the most effective self-promoter. He also had strong financial backers who used their strength as well.
The author then discusses the diffusion of light to both work environments as well as leisure environments. He does a great job showing hos this diffusion changed the way people interacted. This is a critical observation of how technology effects sociological change.
The author discusses the whole issue of patents and patent battles. At the time of Edison there was a strong development of Socialist movements in the US. On p 153 the author discusses the battles over patents. Socialists as he says:
“People invented to satisfy natural creative urge, the socialists insisted, and out of desire to help others. But capitalists bought up the patent rights.”
In a sense the author describes the same battle we see today with some on the Internet who feel that content should be free, and that copyright rights are to be trampled.
The author discusses the expansion of applications, some good and some useless. On p 169 he describes certain medical applications, some good some useless. Yet at the same time we see the invention of the X-ray systems, which in a way was a natural step from the incandescent light bulb.
The battle between “standards” is also brought out by the author in the battle between AC and DC. In reading of Edison’s views, for he was a DC promoter due to his collections of patents in that space, he never did grasp the basic truth that high voltage AC, using transformers, allowed for very low loss transmission over long distances. Edison apparently just did not understand the theory, unlike Tesla, who was a well-educated engineer. Edison was a technician at best, and when that failed he had a large collection of technicians, but in reviewing his library he had little along the lines of true technology. He had technique, a technique developed by extensive trial and error.
On p 199 the author discusses the issue of municipal ownership of utilities. Specifically he talks of the strong Progressive drive to have municipalities control such vital resources. In fact they wanted to control telephone and telegraph, water and sewer. Again what the author has done is to lay out the issue as the technology evolved and he demonstrates so well the mapping on today’s same issues in such areas as broadband. In a sense this book uses the light bulb to demonstrate a near universal development process, sociologically and politically, of almost any new massively accepted technology.
On p 205 the author recounts the development of the technologists, the introduction of electrical engineering into universities such as MIT, Cornell, and Columbia. In this case the universities were followers; they were presented with a pile of technology driven by techniques with no well accepted basis for growth, and then began constructing the basis.
Later in the book the author returns to Government control over the diffusion of this technology. On p 301 is a discussion of the New Deal and the Rural Electrification Administration, bringing light to the farmer. As he says:
“The New Deal’s social engineers believed that rural electrification would do much to ease the burden of farm work…”
Also he notes the FDR administration wanted to bridge what they saw as a growing gap of rural and urban America. Again the author has brilliantly carried the tale to an end point and a point which we can see again today in the broadband arguments.
Overall this book serves two purposes. First it is an excellent summary of the evolution of the light bulb across many facets of society. Second and I believe more important, it represents a paradigm for understanding the development, diffusion and politicization of technological change.
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