After construction was completed, the powerline proved difficult to defend and unprecedented guerrilla warfare brought many towers to the ground (due to "bolt weevils"). Through pulse-quickening personal interviews and big-picture analysis, Powerline lays bare the latent and unexpected power of the people of rural America-and resonates strongly with today's energy debates.
Paul Wellstone (1944-2002) was professor of political science at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, and worked as a political organizer before being elected to the Senate in 1990. His untimely death in a plane crash during the 2002 election galvanized public interest in his vision for progressive politics. His work, ideas, and beliefs are described in The Conscience of a Liberal, available in paperback from the University of Minnesota Press.
Barry M. Casper is a professor of physics at Carleton College and the author of Lost in Washington: Finding the Way Back to Democracy in America (2000).
