Alternating Currents

Abstract

Examining the historical trajectory of France's bold experiment in nationalizing all electrical power services, Alternating Currents offers the fullest history of Electricité de France (EDF) available in any language. EDF, which was established in 1946, was intended to give France both the relatively inexpensive infrastructure considered necessary for rapid economic growth and the institutional framework for a more egalitarian social structure in which workers would play a more decisive role in social and economic decision making. As Robert Frost demonstrates, EDF was spectacularly successful in meeting its technological and economic goals, but failed to fulfill the social and political vision of its founders.

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