1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910813960203321

Autore

Doheny-Farina Stephen

Titolo

The grid and the village [[electronic resource] ] : losing electricity, finding community, surviving disaster / / Stephen Doheny-Farina

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, : Yale University Press, c2001

ISBN

1-281-72297-9

9786611722975

0-300-13382-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (225 p.)

Classificazione

ZN 8500

Disciplina

363.34/92

Soggetti

Electric power distribution - New York (State) - Cold weather conditions

Electric power failures - Social aspects - New York (State) - Potsdam Region

Ice storms - New York (State) - Saint Lawrence County - History

Potsdam Region (N.Y.) Social life and customs 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- contents -- preface trading tales -- one. from accidents to disaster -- two .origins of a grid, part 1 -- three. the grid crumbles -- four. origins of a grid, part 2 -- five. the grid rebuilt -- six. the grid and the village -- afterword a disaster timeline -- notes -- index

Sommario/riassunto

In January 1998 a massive ice storm descended on New York, New England, and eastern Canada. It crushed power grids from the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic, forcing thousands of people into public shelters and leaving millions of others in their homes without electricity. In this riveting book Stephen Doheny-Farina presents an insider's account of these events, describing the destruction of the electric network in his own village and the emergence of the face-to-face interactions that took its place. His stories examine the impact of electronic communications on community, illuminating the relationship between electronic and human connections and between networks and neighborhoods, and exploring why and how media portrayals of disasters can distort authentic experience. Doheny-Farina begins by



discussing the disaster and tracing the origins of the storm. He then goes back two hundred years to tell how this particular electric grid was built, showing us the sacrifices people made to create the grids that (usually) connect us to one another. Today's power grid, says Doheny-Farina, has become more vulnerable than we realize, as demand begins to outstrip capacity in urban centers around the nation. His book reminds us what those grids mean-both positively and negatively-to our electronically saturated lives.