Power Plays provides a conflict model of organizational behavior based on a historical reanalysis of the creation and early development of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) from its origins as a World War I munitions plant to its consolidation as the largest electric utility in the United States. It also examines Philip Selznick's classic work, TVA and the Grass Roots. The book shows how the interactions among the Depression, New Deal politics, the promise of electricity, and diverse ideologies with the strategic and tactical maneuvers of a policy network explain the institutionalization of the TVA.

Richard A. Colignon is Associate Professor in the Center for Social and Public Policy and the Department of Sociology at Duquesne University.