IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2023 - 21

would be within 500 ft of the towers. The book
illustrates one such tower, dwarfing a small private
residence-and one sympathizes with the well-organized
protestors. Members of the Commission visited
the proposed site and saw some of the recently
erected towers. In 2012, the Commission voted 3-2 to
force Edison to remove these towers and to bury 3.5
miles of the line. Wuebben asserts that this decision
was to cost Edison $300 million. A member of the
commission who had changed his vote, thus causing
removal, said that the " towers did not seem right in
the community. " The organization fighting the lines
and towers, Hope for the Hills, had made effective use
of videos on YouTube as well as postings on Twitter
and Facebook. Wuebben observes that " During the
second half of the 20th century and the first part
of the 20th, utopian visions of America's industrial
ascendancy have given way to greater technological
pessimism and a dawning environmental consciousness. "
He also observes that when a utility is forced
to alter its plans, it means extra financial costs which
may be passed on to the shareholders and ratepayers,
or taxpayers in a distant city. Among the major
issues which he briefly touches on is the question
of health hazards for those living near power lines.
Power line opponents have been claiming since
1979 that children living in homes with high electromagnetic
fields have a greater chance of developing
leukemia, citing an article in the American Journal
of Epidemiology. This theme was explored in Paul
Brodeur's book Currents of Death (1989). However,
in more recent decades, there have been numerous
refereed articles debunking the link between cancer
and power line fields. It seems as if there is a need for
a new book examining this subject. On the subject
of new books, I would also suggest one treating the
recent occurrences in California of fires, in wooded
areas, caused by power lines.
Reading Wuebben's work is a rich experience.
One particular strength lies in his showing how
power and telegraph lines appear in places one
would not expect. He alludes to a 1930 poem by W.
H. Auden containing the lines:
" Pylons falling or subsiding, trailing dead high-tension
wires "
while a poem by Stephen Spender, another British
poet, three years later has
" That trails black wire
Pylons, those pillars
Bare like nude giant girls that have no secret. "
DanieL Wuebben is a professor with the English
Department of the University of Nebraska and
his book was published by that university's press.
Although I strongly recommend this work to historians
of the nexus of technology and society, I want to
end by saying that I hope someone from that press is
reading this review. This book, at under 200 pages,
sells for $45. I took it home from a nearby store,
began to read it, and almost immediately the pages,
which are glued, not sewn in place, began to fall out.
I own paperback books with sewn bindings that are
50 years old and have never lost a page.

A. David Wunsch is a professor emeritus
with the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, University of Massachusetts Lowell,
Lowell, MA 01854 USA. He is the book review editor
for IEEE Technology and Society Magazine.
 Direct questions and comments about this article to
A. David Wunsch, University of Massachusetts Lowell,
Lowell, MA 01854 USA; david_wunsch@uml.edu.
September 2023
21
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2023

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