The American Lineman: Honoring the Evolution and Importance of One of the Nation's Toughest, Most Admired Professions [Book Reviews]

Rarely is a book both beautiful and technical, but this book may be the most beautiful book ever produced on a technical topic. Aesthetics aside, it is an intensely serious work on the life, many contributions,and technological importance of the lineman. Reliable communication and power are the foundation of the modern world. Much has been written about the invention and development of those technologies, but rare is the mention of the lineman, the most vital link in that reliability. It is a well-researched work on the evolution of the lineman’s work from the earliest telegraph systems to the most modern power grids, with a focus on the methods, technological changes, safety issues, and tools of the trade over the years. In his introduction, the author covers the work of the Northwest Lineman College, his objectives for the book, the evolution of the job, and his sources of data. With brilliant, intense imagery, the reader is taken on a ride of adventure, challenge, tragedy, and triumph. Climbing a pole using spikes and a safety belt—with a leg wrapped around the pole to maintain one’s position—is daunting to imagine. Then, the reader moves on through the construction and restoration of lines in desert heat and frigid mountain passes, isolated from family and the comforts of home. Even the most knowledgeable reader can find some detail that will astonish; for me, it was the proposed Russia–United States telegraph line of 1860 that so bankrupted the Russian treasury that the czar was persuaded to sell Alaska to the United States in the famous Seward purchase of 1867.