Electric City: The Lost History of Ford and Edison's American Utopia

The extraordinary, unknown story of two giants of American historyùHenry Ford and Thomas Edisonùand 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 countryÆs poorest regions into a dream technological metropolis, a shining paradise of small farms, giant factories, and sparkling laboratories. Henry Ford and Thomas EdisonÆs ôDetroit of the Southö would be ten 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 ôenergy dollars,ö 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, ot