Electric Worlds / Mondes electriques: Creations, Circulations, Tensions, Transitions (19th-21st C.)

What interpretation(s) do today’s historians make of electrification? Electrification is a process which began almost a hundred and fifty years ago but which more than one billion men and women still do not have access to. This book displays the social diversity of the electric worlds and of the approaches to their history. It updates the historical knowledge and shows the renewal of the historiography in both its themes and its approaches. Four questions about the passage to the electrical age are raised: which innovations or combination of innovations made this passage a reality? According to which networks and appropriation? Evolving thanks to which tensions and alliances? And resulting in which transition and accumulation? Quel(s) regard(s) les historiens d'aujourd'hui portent-ils sur l'electrification, processus engage il y a pres de cent cinquante ans mais auquel plus d'un milliard d'hommes et de femmes restent encore etrangers ? Le present volume rend compte de la diversite des mondes sociaux electriques et des manieres d'enqueter sur leur histoire. Il actualise les connaissances et temoigne du renouvellement de l'historiographie, dans ses objets et ses approches. Quatre points d'interrogation sur le basculement des societes dans l'age electrique jalonnent le volume : moyennant quelles creations ou combinaisons creatrices ? En vertu de quelles circulations et appropriations ? Selon quelles tensions et alliances ? Et produisant quelles transitions et accumulations ?