Tesla
By Richard Munson
Inventor of the Modern. W. W Norton and Company, 2019.
Summary of Tesla book by Richard Munson
The gripping tale of Nikola Tesla, whose inspired inventions and innovations revolutionized the generation and transmission of electricity in the United States and beyond, charting his journey from a near-death experience with cholera to his rivalry with Thomas Edison.
Chapters in Tesla book summary
What do you get from this book? The electrifying successes and trying struggles of one of the world’s boldest inventors
Tesla started life in rural Croatia, before a brush with death ignited his engineering career
Inspired to produce a design for an AC motor, Tesla travelled to America—where he met future nemesis Thomas Edison
The invention of the Tesla coil would be his greatest achievement, but not before tragic losses and Edison’s aggressive scaremongering
The War of the Currents was won in Chicago with Tesla’s vast electric light display at the World’s Columbian Exposition
The electrification of Niagara Falls marked a new era in American power generation, while Tesla’s celebrity grew
Tesla’s tribulations in America began with a fire in his lab, but his obsessive idealism didn’t help
Despite grand high-voltage experiments that even electrified horses’ shoes nearby, Tesla was losing the wireless race to Italian Guglielmo Marconi
Banking tycoon J. P. Morgan gave Tesla a financial lifeline that was cut off when he failed to get results
As he reached his fifties, Tesla’s poverty continued and his stubbornness cost him, though he now inspired younger inventors
Tesla’s legacy is an electrified world, the beginnings of wireless communication, and even his fair share of conspiracy theories
Summary of the key insights
Selected critiques in brief
Final word
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Tesla — Book Summary Snapshot
Who should read Tesla book
- Budding historians
- those who appreciate eccentric historical figures
- physics enthusiasts
- people worried about technology
- conspiracy theorists
About the author of Tesla
Richard Munson
Richard Munson is a writer and clean energy campaigner who has been cited in the Washington Post and has written articles for Forbes. He is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Michigan. His other publications include Tech to Table (2021) and The Power Makers (1985).
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