The extraordinary, unknown story of two giants of American history -
Henry Ford and Thomas Edison - and their attempt to create an
electric-powered city of tomorrow on the Tennessee River
During the Roaring Twenties, two of the most revered and influential men
in American business proposed to transform one of the country's poorest
regions into a dream technological metropolis, a shining paradise of
small farms, giant factories, and sparkling laboratories. Henry Ford and
Thomas Edison's "Detroit of the South" would be 10 times the size of
Manhattan, powered by renewable energy, and free of air pollution. And
it would reshape American society, introducing mass commuting by car,
use a new kind of currency called "energy dollars", and have the added
benefit (from Ford and Edison's view) of crippling the growth of
socialism.
The whole audacious scheme almost came off, with Southerners rallying to
support what became known as the Ford Plan. But while some saw it as a
way to conjure the future and reinvent the South, others saw it as one
of the biggest land swindles of all time. They were all true.
Electric City is a rich chronicle of the time and the social backdrop,
and offers a fresh look at the lives of the two men who almost saw the
project to fruition, the forces that came to oppose them, and what rose
in its stead: a new kind of public corporation called the Tennessee
Valley Authority, one of the greatest achievements of the New Deal. This
is a history for a wide audience, including listeners interested in
American history, technology, politics, and the future.
