Review by Booklist Review
For his many popular groundbreaking inventions, from motion pictures to record players, Thomas Edison rightfully earned his place in the history books as one of the world's greatest inventors and entrepreneurs. Yet, garnering less attention while he was alive and ultimately dying in poverty, Nikola Tesla, Edison's contemporary, is often deemed by today's scientists and engineers particularly Elon Musk, who named a car after him as the greater prodigy. In this celebratory, comprehensive profile of Tesla, author and clean-energy-activist Munson, in contrast to previous Tesla biographers, turns the spotlight onto the inventor's inner world, tracing the roots of Tesla's uncanny resourcefulness to his early family life. Born in Serbia, allegedly during a midnight thunderstorm, Tesla grew up in the shadow of his polymath father and gifted older brother, fueling both his later career, Munson argues, as a flamboyant showman, and his almost-obsessive passion to push his inventive creativity to extremes of impracticality. A well-written, insightful addition to the legacy of this still-underappreciated visionary genius.--Hays, Carl Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) is well revered by today's entrepreneurs for his moonshot visions of the future. As the inventor of alternating current (AC) power systems and one of the primary contributors to radio technology, his work has only recently been recognized. Munson (George Fabyan) affirms the myth of the Serbian American inventor and engineer as an isolated genius willing to reshape the present into the future, if only given the opportunity and the financial support. Munson capably describes Tesla as a man before his time, often misunderstood because few shared his imagination and insight. He presents Tesla as the "true inventor of radio," a claim disputed by those favoring Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi. Since Tesla lived and died between the ages of lone and corporate invention, it is unsurprising that some of the credit due him has been questioned. As an earnest proponent of Tesla, Munson may be accused of hyperbole-if Tesla were not so worthy of it. -VERDICT Entrepreneurs, inventors, engineers, and futurists will find this biography inspiring.-Ricardo Laskaris, York Univ. Lib., -Toronto © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A lucid, expertly researched biography of the brilliant Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), a contemporary and competitor of Thomas Edison who was equally celebrated during his life.Munson (From Edison to Enron: The Business of Power and What It Means for the Future of Electricity, 2005, etc.), who directs the Environment Defense Fund's clean energy work in the Midwest, emphasizes that Tesla was a prodigy starting from his childhood in Serbia. Coming to the United States in 1884, he worked for Edison, whose company was installing the first electric lighting in American cities using complex direct current generators, which were limited to transmitting short distances and suitable only for electric lighting. An eccentric workaholic who knew far more science than the uneducated Edison, Tesla had been working on an efficient alternating current system. Edison rejected it, but George Westinghouse hired Tesla; after a bitter, decadelong "war of currents," Tesla emerged victorious. His AC "dramatically expanded the potential market for electricity, allowing it to be sold not just at night for lighting but also during the day for factories, appliances, and streetcar lines. For the first time, [AC] could be pumped for hundreds of miles and efficiently power machines as well as lamps." By the 1890s, Tesla was a wealthy celebrity whose lectures thrilled audiences with demonstrations of spectacular electrical phenomena. Although he continued to invent and patent essential features of radio, wireless telegraphy, and even computers, he grew obsessed with visionary, expensive megaprojectse.g., wireless power transmissionmost of which never panned out. Investors stopped investing, and he spent his final decades entertaining journalists and the public with sometimes-accurate, often wacky predictions but producing little of commercial value. As the author notes, "he believed the joy of inventing went beyond the accumulation of profits."Readers will share Munson's frustration at this seeming frittering of a magnificent talent, but they will absolutely enjoy his sympathetic, insightful portrait. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
