Selling power: economics, policy, and electric utilities before 1940 - 14

We remember Thomas Edison as the inventor of the incandescent light bulb, but he deserves credit for something much larger, an even more singular invention that profoundly changed the way the world works: the modern electric utility industry.

Edison's light bulb was the first to work within a system where a utility generated electricity and distributed it to customers for lighting.

The story of how electric utilities went within one generation from prototype to an indispensable part of most Americans' lives is a story about the relationships between political and technological change.

John L. Neufeld offers a comprehensive historical treatment of the economics that shaped electric utilities.