Book Review

This history of the Duke Power Company, which after a recent merger with PanEnergy Company of Houston is now the largest subsidiary of Duke Energy Company, was commissioned by its chief executive officer (CEO) to record the history of the company from its antecedents to the merger. The book is intended for the 'general reader' and specifically not for engineers or specialists in business and economic history. If one defines 'general reader' rather narrowly as folks who might have an interest in the region or a specific interest in the company, the book succeeds admirably. But there are also parts of it that may be of interest to specialist historians. As a historian of the electric power industry, I can attest that the author touches on many of the issues that have been of interest to historians of the industry, including the problem of raising capital in its early days, the creation of state regulatory agencies, the relationship between private and public power, the energy crisis of the mid-1970s to early 1980s, and nuclear power. Although the author was given discretion over what material to include and over the interpretation of events, the CEO obviously knew well the historian he had hired. Robert F. Durden had previously published three books on the Duke family enterprises and philanthropic endeavors (The Dukes of Durham, 1865-1929, 1975; The Launching of Duke University, 1924-1949, 1993; and Lasting Legacy to the Carolinas: The Duke Endowment, 1924-1994, 1998).

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