Electricity is the foundation of modernity. On August 14, 2003, a software glitch caused a mass blackout affecting 50 million people throughout New England, Ohio, and Ontario. Elevators in Manhattan skyscrapers froze, residents abandoned their homes as air conditioners quit, and over $1 billion of food spoiled in refrigerators. But how did we become so dependent upon electricity>? Historian Keven Moore discusses how Ohio became electrified over a 70-year period from 1880 to 1950: first through municipal power in its cities, then to small towns via interurban railways, and finally across the countryside through the Rural Electrification Administration during the Great Depression. Instructor: Kevin Moore, Hayes Presidential Center