The birth of the grid, 1899 to 1918 -- Contests for control, 1918-1934 -- Balancing reliability and economy, 1930-1940 -- Power transformations on the home front, 1935-1950 -- Nuances of control in an increasingly interconnected world, 1945-1965 -- Drifting "lazily" into synchrony, from blackout...

Power to the People examines the varied but interconnected relationships between energy consumption and economic development in Europe over the last five centuries. It describes how the traditional energy economy of medieval and early modern Europe was marked by stable or falling per capita...