We have Edison, who started it all with his improved dynamo and the electric lighting system; Tesla and his crucial AC electric motor; Westinghouse who had the business insight and technical acumen to pursue the alternating current. Geniuses, yes. But of a very different sort.
Jonnes does an outstanding job of portraying the times, and the interaction of the approaches to solving problems that each of these heroes had. So different, so complementary and so effective. There was nothing else like it anywhere on earth.
I suppose anyone reading this review has read a bit about Edison and the light, Tesla and his eccentricities, and Westinghouse and his devotion to his workers. The tale of the Niagra generators and the first long distance transport of electrical power will probably be new to you, and it is a story well-told.
But Jonnes has an awful lot to add to the usual stuff. She communicates the downright excitement of it all, the delicious discoveries of the new, and the suspense of the disasters to be overcome. This is no Ph. D. thesis transported into a popularization of science--the technical details are presented in just enough detail to whet your appetite for a deeper understanding of it all, and leave you truly awestruck. How can you ask for anything more?
Being a Design Engineer, I could have been more demanding of Ms. Jonnes circuits and ommissions, but I remembered that this isn't a textbook. If I, or anyone for that matter, desires more discreptive ac/dc circuits we should seek the assistance of a textbook. Ms. Jonnes did, in my humble opinion, an extremely nice job of presenting the primary components of the creation of electricity, both human and mechanical, and provided a nice evolution of electricity (i.e., from novelty entertainment to powering a World's Fair). Whenever I finish a book, especially nonfiction books, I always want to take something away that makes me better for having read it. I can honestly say that was the case with Empires of Light.
The best things about this book are in overview and context. I learned about the business environment and practices during the Gilded era, which was indeed extremely interesting and useful for my current project. This is well researched and clearly written. Moreover, what each of these individuals faced - their frustrations, ambitions, motivations, and methods - are also examined in some detail. While I know a lot about Edison from previous research, this was a gold mine of info on his principal competitors, Westinghouse and Tesla, whose technology (AC) won the battle to become the standard of wire-furnsihed electric power. Edison was an incredible inventor, but his obstinancy for sticking to what he created led him to bypass AC for the less workable DC (this is a pattern that led him to many strategic mistakes thru his career). Tesla was an eccentric visionary and loner, who made great discoveries early on only to get mired into megalomanaical schemes during the last decades of his life. Westinghouse was a true "broker of innovation" - finding and using talent with great efficiacy - and in many ways a brilliant pioneer of corporate and industrial organization; he was also a decent man with populist ideals in a time of ruthless exploitation and manipulation.
However, this book failed for me on many counts. First, it did not go into enough technological detail for me - I still don't understand the difference between AC and DC from a scientific point of view. Second, I did not get much of a feeling for a story (billed on the cover as a titanic struggle) that was unfolding: instead, the book jumped around and got bogged down in certian details, such as the grizzly chapter on Edison's promotion of an AC-current electric chair (to scare the public) or the maneuvering that preceeded the COlumbian Exposition.
Third, and this is a very personal perception, I did not like the way that Jonnes writes. While her book certainly was not as dry or lifeless as so many academic studies tend to be, I felt she was straining to write as eloquently as McCullough or Schama, which I believe is beyond her talent. This criticism may come from writing 101, but she uses too many adjectives. Waves of panic are "ungulating," electicity is "ethereal," etc., each time failing to find "le mot juste." I really don't mean to be a snob about this - she is a better historian than I ever could be - but her writing style irritated me several times on every page.
Recommended with these caveats in mind.
Ms. Jonnes makes little of this chase to rule over the very lifeblood of the nation. The larger than life characters clearly demand more development: Edison, the proponent of the "horrible experiment", the electric chair to discredit his opponents; Westinghouse, a brilliant practical technician and friend of labor; and the urbane Tesla, the virtual electrical mystic, whose theories (and some engineering feats) live on today. The same sketching technique is made of other people and events that pass through this book. How compelling their cameos could have been- Sarah Bernhardt (of Edison's electrical display: "C'est grand, c'est magnifique!"); Edison financier J.P. Morgan ("legendary ferocious eyes...monstrous nose"); the genius Faraday; Astor IV (a Tesla backer); Tesla's mysterious 18-story tower in New Jersey; the Chicago Columbian Exposition won by Westinghouse's lighting; and the assassination of Chicago Mayor Harrison. The writing leaves us with little suspense and a weak understanding of the excesses of the Gilded Age, as reflected in the overweening egos and ambitions of these three competitors and their financiers. A saving grace are the photos - the diamond-like Woolworth Building; Tesla demonstrating his eerie wireless bulbs; a smitten Westinghouse admiring his beautiful wife; the white pigeon that was Tesla's "great love in his final years"; Edison catching winks on his workbench. Unfortunately, there are altogether too few of these, too many electrical renderings, and just too much technical detail.
