A King and an Inventor: The Story of How Hawaii Went Electric Before Most of the World

(Originally aired August 23, 2018) Guest: Allison Marsh, Associate Professor of History, University of South Carolina In the late 1800s, the most exciting technology was electricity itself. Here in America, it didn’t catch on as quickly as you might think, but thanks to a series of events, involving a curious king, a trip to Paris, and a meeting with Thomas Edison—the islands of Hawaii got electricity before most of the world. How did a tiny island Kingdom in the middle of the Pacific get on the cutting edge of this revolution?