BLACKOUT BOOK


The environmentalist Edward Abbey once said, “You can’t study the darkness by flooding it with light,” but David Nye is out to prove him wrong. In his new book, When the Lights Went Out, Nye traces the 20th-century significance of a blanket of night falling over society. The imposed blackouts during World War II make an appearance as examples of military action. New York City’s 1965 and 1977 blackouts are contrasted to reflect the dissolution in societal bonds in those decades. California’s rolling blackouts in 2000 and the power failure that brought down the northeast in 2003 demonstrate the nation’s increasingly creaky infrastructure. Through causes economic, strategic, environmental, or just plain belligerent, Nye explores the effect of darkness on the American mind, painting a picture of a modern civilization so consumed with life under glowing bulbs that night itself seems unnatural.

NYC Blackout, 2003. Photography by Sergio A. Fernandez
Courtesy +Kris Graves Projects, Brooklyn.
When the Lights Went Out is out in March 2010 from MIT Press

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