Scan barcode
3no7's review against another edition
dark
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
4.75
Nikola Tesla was a mysterious character, and Perko and Stahl unravel that life for readers. Most people recognize Tesla only as a brand of electric car; a few remember the name in conjunction with the Tesla coil “contraption” of school physics classes, but he contributed much more to civilization than just those oddities. In fact, modern life as we know it might not exist were it not for Tesla and his genius, curiosity, and innovation. Somehow school instruction “credits” Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison for “discovering” electricity. While that may be factual, in truth it was Tesla who tamed and harnessed electricity, and this controlling of electricity is what enabled modern society to progress. If one wonders what life would be like without power, even for a moment, an hour, or a lifetime, then thank Tesla for not having this worry.
Nikola Tesla’s birth almost foretold his unique spot in history. He was born precisely at midnight, between July 9 and July 10, 1856. Perko and Stahl explore the Tesla not shown in history books. He struggled with internal demons throughout his life, but perhaps those personal struggles fueled his fanatical curiosity and unrelenting drive. Tesla’s life was filled with strangeness, but with that strangeness came imagination, innovation and creativity.
“Tesla -- His Tremendous and Troubled Life” shows readers the Tesla who had an instinct for solving problems. I received a review copy from Marko Perko, Stephen M Stahl, and The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group. Tesla was a true visionary; a person with a healthy disregard for the impossible who thought outside the box before most people even knew there was a box.
If you are looking for a book that will make you think about everything around you, read this one.
inquiry_from_an_anti_library's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
tense
slow-paced
3.0
Overview:
This book is more than just what Tesla’s ideas and inventions contributed to how life is lived, which was so immense that they are ubiquitous. This book is about who Tesla was, the psychology and culture that made Tesla such an eccentric. Starting with a childhood which prepared Tesla to reason and think critically. But a family tragedy, caused childhood trauma that would shake the foundation of the family and impact Tesla’s psychological makeup. During Tesla’s whole life, there were psychological problems. The specifics are not known, but Tesla had troubling hallucinations, long periods of depressions, and manic states. It was during the manic states that Tesla was most productive, and produced the most innovations. Tesla had periods in which there were too many ideas flowing around that it was a challenge to slow them down, while other periods with barely any. Tesla’s cultural background instilled a desire for Tesla to invent useful things that can help others. To better humankind. For those ideals, Tesla often chose principles over profit. That caused many financially difficult periods. An idealism that made Tesla a bit naïve when dealing with people, as many have betrayed Tesla.
Caveats?
The book’s narrative lacks a bit of flow, making it more difficult to read. A writing style issue is with how the authors describe history, as predetermined, that the events that happened were inevitable. This is problematic because there was a lot of uncertainty to the outcomes of events during the time, which the authors sometimes mention.
Although Tesla’s inventiveness, ingenuity, and intellect cannot be denied, Tesla did not do everything alone. The authors focus on Tesla as a sole and solitary genius, which is the case, but that is not the whole of what made Tesla so great. Tesla saw how the available technology could be used and made extraordinary improvements and inventions. There were many technological ideas that Tesla had that would not be proven or become practical until after Tesla’s death. But all those ideas had others, who may not have had any of Tesla’s abilities, but were able to compete and complete the technology.
More...