A Revelatory Look at the US at the Dawn of AC
5 stars
This book makes clear just how profoundly air conditioning changed society, arguably making it the most transformative modern invention. Basile further shows how hard it was for people to grasp the value of AC due to cultural norms - becoming expected only after half a century of technical and commercial feasibility. How work, production, and even the distribution of the US population looked before and after the adoption of AC is difficult to overstate, and this book methodically demonstrates the breadth of that transformation. Highly recommend