Commonalities: The R.E.A. and High-Speed Rural Internet Access

Special thanks to Alycia Vivona of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library for research assistance on the origins of the Rural Electrification Administration. I have also benefited from conversations with John Willis, Carli Cochi Ficano, and Silvano Wueschner on high-speed Internet access for rural areas like our own. Robert Whaples and an anonymous reviewer for EH.NET raised incisive questions on the history of the R.E.A. Ellen Falduto provided a workspace and a T1 connection at the TeleCenter in Oneonta, New York for my sabbatical. Thanks also to Mark Rhoads and the United States Internet Council for providing a home for an earlier version of this paper. This work is generously supported by a Trustee Research Grant from Hartwick College.