The Grid: A Journey Through the Heart of Our Electrified World by Phillip F. Schewe

From Barnes & Noble

You can't always see it, but the electrical grid is everywhere. Arguably the most significant engineering achievement of the past century, this invisible network powers nearly every facet of our daily lives. Yet, as recent outages demonstrate, this intricate electrical system is increasingly vulnerable to widespread failure. Author Phillip Schewe notes that grid failures in the new century have affected hundreds of millions of people around the globe, causing tens of billions of dollars in business damages in each year. His narrative history of the electrical grid, the first ever aimed at general readers, is both a fascinating read and an alarming wake-up call.

From the Publisher

First history of the electrical grid aimed at general readers. The more dependent we become on electricity to perform even the most mundane daily taks, the more the grid's inevitable shortcomings will take their toll on populations globally. A system built in such a way that the bigger it gets, the more inevitable its collapse!

Publishers Weekly

With an appreciation of the technical ingenuity, human drama and cultural impact of the electrical grid, physicist and playwright Schewe illuminates how electricity has catalyzed both the best and worst of modernity since Thomas Edison devised the first electrical network in 1882. Even as the grid delivered light and mechanization, foremost minds like Westinghouse, Tesla and Insull continued to refine it, creating a society totally dependent on its invisible wonders. In the 1965 Northeast blackout, for example, New York shut down for lack of a product that barely existed half a century before. The grid's complexity demands predictability, Schewe shows, but even a minor short circuit can trigger a systemwide avalanche. Peppering his narrative with quotations from cultural critics Lewis Mumford and Henry David Thoreau, he argues that, economically, "we can't afford to throw away two-thirds" of energy as waste, and explains how nuclear and renewable resources can reduce pollution. Schewe also explores how Africa and Asia's dearth of electricity affects the participation of impoverished people in society. Though the final chapter on how astronauts took energy with them to the moon seems unnecessary, overall Schewe crafts an entertaining narrative with enlightening scientific and historical detail. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

James A. Buczynski - Library Journal

Lots of stories are written about the history of electricity, electrical generation, and power distribution systems; most are boring and inaccessible to nontechnical readers. Schewe (chief science writer, American Inst. of Physics) attempts to bridge the gap between those people interested in our electrified existence and the writings available to them. He demystifies the power grid by threading together numerous historical vignettes that draw out key stories, characters, companies, scientific concepts, events, and philosophical ideas (e.g., sustainability and human nature). He also autopsies recent blackouts to pique readers' interest in the complexity of the system, the simplicity of the parts that make it up, and the management of its operations. Not surprisingly for a book aimed at general readers, the text lacks formulas and engineering graphics, and its vignettes remind this reviewer of the stories his father used to tell in response to childhood questions about the world. Missing, however, is coverage of innovations in other countries and weather-related calamities. Recommended for public and high school libraries and for college students studying electricity and magnetism physics.

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents