It may sound simple. Fashion a set of blades, attach them to a generator, set the machine on top of a tower, and let the wind do the work of creating electricity. Not so. Most of these attempts fall far short of expectations, even with the availability of the latest tools and materials. In this well-researched and accessibly written book, Christopher C. Gillis Sr. examines the efforts of entrepreneurs in the development of "small" wind generators for use at homes, farms, and ranches following the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo. Wind machines were once prominently used on farms and homesteads throughout the Midwest of the United States and Canada during the late 1910s through the early 1950s in locations that had no access to overhead electric-power transmission lines.

As a result of the federal government's goal of connecting rural America to the power grid, starting with the 1935 Rural Electrification Act, many of these pioneer wind-electric machines gave way to the power lines and were removed from their towers. Interest in wind energy in the Americas was reborn in the early 1970s with the energy shortages created by the Arab Oil Embargo, the rise of environmentalism, and the appeal of off-the-grid living. Early wind-electric machines were dusted off and restored to service, several former manufacturers reemerged, and entrepreneurs came up with new designs-some successful. Political and societal interest in renewable energies, such as wind and solar, began to wane in the early 1980s and did not return until the late 1990s. Even so, the developments in the 1970s influenced how Americans subsequently viewed and used renewable power. Wind Energy Revolution is a first-of-its-kind comprehensive history of the evolution of small wind systems for historians and anyone interested in wind as a viable renewable resource.