The Wired Northwest dar River in 1905. Though, as Hirt ers controlling their access to electric- The History of Electric Power, points out, electricity was initially un- ity, as they watched bankers, financiers, evenly adopted and used, questions and capitalists from Chicago, Boston, 1870s-1970s about who would control the produc- and New York enter the local electric Paul W. Hirt tion, transmission, and consumption utility market via direct and indirect of the nascent resource immediately avenues of influence. Both books also (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, engendered debate between public agree that a 1915 victory of the Na- 2012. ix, 461 pp. Illustrations, notes, utilities mandated with providing low- tional Electric Light Association, a law bibliography, index. $49.95) cost energy to as many as possible and effectively prohibiting municipal elec- private companies determined to pro- tric utilities from selling power beyond Power for the People vide electricity at the highest rate pos- city limits, was a serious blow to anti- A History of Seattle City Light sible and only to those who could pay. corporate interests in the public-pri- vate war. This conflict would, over David W. Wilma, Walt Crow- Hirt attributes the Pacific Northwest’s time, come to dominate the electric in- ley, and the HistoryLink early adoption of electricity to indus- dustry not just in the Northwest, but Staff try magnates who saw the importance across the United States. of lighting not only private residences (Seattle: HistoryLink, in association but also work sites such as mines and At the same time, each book brings in- with University of Washington Press, shipyards where artificial light prom- dependent subjects to bear. Hirt high- 2010. 131 pp. Illustrations, notes, index. ised to increase productivity and prof- lights the particularities of electric $29.95) its. Hirt covers subjects such as the power in the United States and Can- amalgamation of small utilities into ada, explaining that for Canadians It is a rare opportunity to review two ever larger ones, the enthusiasm about growth remained generally slower, texts whose theme and scope comple- the possibilities offered by this new government regulation was less trans- ment each other so well. Paul W. Hirt’s technology (which was quickly tem- formative (especially during the world Wired Northwest is an ambitious, com- pered by unequal service and prices for wars), and the Great Depression was prehensive, and integrated history of residential and commercial custom- more inhibiting because of already- regional power in Washington, Utah, ers), the apprehension of monopolies, strained economies and cautious fi- Oregon, and British Columbia from the conflict between the utility compa- nanciers. He also spends considerable the 1870s to the 1970s. David Wilma, nies and fishermen over use of the riv- time on the Bonneville Power Admin- Walt Crowley, and the HistoryLink ers, and the effect of the region’s istration and the far-reaching effects staff’s Power for the People, on the unique geography on energy history in that federally funded hydroelectric other hand, is a detailed microcosm of the Northwest. projects would have on the industry. Hirt’s larger narrative—a history of Wilma and his coauthors, meanwhile, Seattle City Light, a municipal electric Hirt’s narrative tends to focus more on meticulously detail Seattle City Light’s utility that in numerous ways lies at private utilities and their machinations sometimes rocky transformation into the heart of Hirt’s story—during al- than on municipal utilities, yet given the largest publicly owned utility in the most the same period. Together, the his goal to synthesize a hundred years region. A particularly interesting mo- two books offer a compelling account of energy history this is not entirely his ment in Seattle City Light’s history was of wringing energy from the landscape fault. Municipal utilities, as shown by when it implemented public tours in amid issues of ideology and regional Wilma and his coauthors, were, espe- 1929 to keep the utility in the public identity. cially in the early years, volatile and eye during economic hardship. Pictur- small in number. Indeed, Power for the esque train rides, guided tours of the Power for the People traces the stutter- People provides a balance to Hirt’s nar- monumental engineering project at ing emergence in Seattle of electricity, rative of the ideological struggle that Skagit River, and an overnight stay a new technology that promised to lib- quickly developed between propo- made the tours successful to the tune erate the people in this quickly grow- nents of private power and proponents of 22,000 visitors per year by the start ing city from the darkness. The city of public power by reminding us of the of World War Two. Also of interest to was first electrified in 1886, when two widespread desire all around the re- the reader will be the book’s rendering dynamos went online, generating gion for more reliable and lower- of the life of a City Light employee, de- enough electricity for three hundred priced electricity. scribing not only the daily work activi- 16-candlepower lamps. The city soon ties of the utility’s linemen, salespeo- turned its focus to harnessing the en- Together, the two books demonstrate ple, and troubleshooters, but also their ergy of the region’s rivers, building its Pacific northwesterners’ fear of outsid- personal lives in the often remote com- first hydroelectricity project on the Ce-

2 Pacific Northwest Quarterly pany towns where they learned, voted, commiserated, and celebrated together.

The two texts are not without their dis- agreements. For instance, Wilma and his coauthors argue that in the early years Seattle City Light charged resi- dential customers eight cents per kilo- watt-hour, with reduced rates as usage increased, while for commercial cus- tomers, rates were “generally higher” (p. 28). Hirt notes, however, that with- out fail commercial customers, who used far more electricity than the aver- age residential customer, enjoyed sig- nificantly reduced rates. This trend, argues Hirt, provided continual am- munition for the multifarious interests debating the merits of public and pri- vate ownership.

Both narratives stop with the onset of the 1970s and the end of the utilities’ policy of pushing limitless consump- tion (which they did on the basis that production could always keep up with need). Economic realities, along with local and global politics, changed the landscape of public and private power, as did new environmental imperatives, as both the government and the public came to expect the utilities to be re- sponsible environmental stewards of public resources.

Ry Marcattilio-McCracken Oklahoma State University

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