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Welcome to the Blackout History Project

In 1965, the Northeast of the the US and parts of Canada experienced its first major blackout, which sent shock waves through the region, the country, and much of the electrified world. This page has selected links to the much larger archive maintained by George Mason University.

YOUR TASK and HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT is to read significant portions of the links below, as well as any other parts of the GMU page that catch your attention, in order to prepare for class discussion and for writing a 3 to 4 page reflection on the role of electric power and electrification in modern society. On November 15 you will hand in one page (typed) of thoughts, questions, notes... for class discussion. On November 22, you will hand in a 3 to 4 page reflection. See HW 10: Blackout discussion questions for the assignment.

Everyone should read the following:
- The Loudon Wainright article from Life Magazine's issue on the blackout (with well known writers of the day), along with some of the ads and photos (unfortunately, the T H White link is broken).
- And compare society's expectations, fears and assumptions from 1965 with those of the blackout in August 2003. One sense of that blackout (skim this article) is from What went wrong?

Specific chapters of the following book are assigned in the HW9a assignment. Each student will read those chapters, and focus on the group topic assigned/selected in class on November 10.
- The Night the Lights Went Out, book by NYT reporters. This is scanned on and appears to be rather unfriendly to read - but read through your assigned chapters - they are all fairly short. This account gives a great sense of society at the time.

This is fascinating, but rather difficult to read this scanned version
- SKIM through pieces of the National Opinion Research Center's report
Important Blackout Resources
- The main blackout archive is at GMU 1965 Blackout Archive
- A wonderful site for sources on the August 2003 blackout is PSERC 2003 Blackout site

Important Blackout Resources