Electrifying Europe : the power of Europe in the construction of electricity networks

This book sets out to uncover the origins of the idea of a European electricity network. It explores historically the roots of a transnational European system, showing how engineers came to think in terms of ‘Europe’ already in the 1920s, and how these ideas continued to influence network-building in later decades. This thinking not only corresponded to economic and technical attributes of the system, as first described by Thomas Hughes. This thesis claims that a European system was also legitimised by ideological motives, as a complement to – but not always complying with – economic and technical efficiency.