BLACKOUT

Fear and looting in New York. That's how many remember the 1977 blackout. While Son of Sam was still at large and unemployment was high, nine million people were suddenly plunged into darkness on a hot July evening. Unlike the comparative calm that characterized the 1965 and 2003 blackouts, in 1977 mobs went on a violent rampage. Adults, teens and children torched buildings, yanked protective metal grills off storefronts and smashed windows to fill their shopping carts with food, appliances, jewelry and clothing. These groups outnumbered police (only 14 officers were on duty in Bushwick, Brooklyn, that evening) and robbed more than 2,000 stores city-wide. By the time power was restored after 25 hours, damages from the devastation had climbed toward $61 million. Rutgers history professor Goodman, a Pulitzer finalist for his first book (Stories of Scottsboro ), carries the reader beyond conventional journalism for a multidimensional, kaleidoscopic narrative history, covering the events and aftermath from all angles: "I tell my story in bursts, recreating incidents, deeds, accidents, encounters, conversations, exchanges, and arguments, trying to evoke mood and place and time." He recalls the 1977 blackout through personal accounts, studies, public reports and period articles from magazines (Time, Newsweek ) and newspapers (the New York Times , Daily News , New York Post , Village Voice , Amsterdam News ). While the more mundane tales of revelry and inconvenience will appear familiar to many readers after blackouts this past year in the U.S., Canada, England and Italy, Goodman reminds us that the excessive looting of 1977 is the looming dark side of power outages in the electrified world. (Dec. 9)