Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America

Thursday, March 28, 7:00 pm
Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America
Speaker: Ernest Freeberg, Distinguished Professor of Humanities, University of Tennessee-Knoxville

Ernest Freeberg, author of the brand new book, Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America, which Publishers Weekly calls "illuminating," joins us to deliver a keynote talk related to our current museum exhibit, Wired! How Electricity Came to Maine. Dr. Freeberg will share his research on the inventor and the Menlo Park laboratory environment, the history of electric light generally, and how that technology shaped American culture.

Dr. Freeberg teaches American cultural, social, and religious history, with an emphasis on the 19th and early 20th centuries. His previous books include Democracy’s Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, The Great War, and the Right to Dissent, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, and winner of the David J. Langum, Sr. Prize in American Legal History and the Eli M. Oboler Award from the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Roundtable; and The Education of Laura Bridgman, which won the American Historical Association's Dunning Prize for 2002.

A Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians, Dr. Freeberg has served on the editorial board of the History of Education Quarterly, and has produced a number of public radio documentaries on historical themes.