Insull

by Forrest McDonald

Next to Thomas Edison, Samuel Insull is the name you should remember as the most important and perhaps the most notorious person in the utility business. He was the billionaire utility tycoon from Chicago whose gas and electric empire operating in over thirty states in 1932, causing a million investors to lose two to three billion dollars. Starting as Thomas Edison's private secretary in 1881, he was responsible for establishing centralized electric supply. He organized the Edison General Electric Company before the industrial giant of the same name, working out a model of nationwide distribution and promoting rural electrification. One of the most significant accomplishments was acquiring effective government regulation of public utilities. The author does not make judgments as to whether Insull was good or bad. He merely wants us to know the man for what he did.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

350 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1962

About the author

Dr. McDonald was a Distinguished Research Professor of History at the University of Alabama, where he was the Sixteenth Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities in 1987. He was awarded the Ingersoll Prize in 1990. Professor McDonald is the author of several books including Novus Ordo Seclorum (University Press of Kansas, 1985), and The American Presidency: Roots, Establishment, Evolution (University Press of Kansas, 1994).