Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published May 2008
560 pages
Genre: Science, Health and the Environment
Publication Information
The dramatic story of the “power revolution” that turned America from an agrarian society into a technological superpower, and the dynamic, fiercely competitive inventors and entrepreneurs who made it happen—a riveting historical saga to rival McCullough’s The Great Bridge or Larson’s Thunderstruck.
The steam engine, the incandescent bulb, the electric motor—inventions such as these replaced backbreaking toil with machine labor and changed every aspect of daily life in the span of a few generations. The power revolution is not a tale of machines, however, but of men: inventors such as James Watt, Elihu Thomson, and Nikola Tesla; entrepreneurs such as George Westinghouse; savvy businessmen such as J.P. Morgan, Samuel Insull, and Charles Coffin of General Electric. Striding among them like a colossus is the figure of Thomas Edison, who was creative genius and business visionary at once. With consummate skill, Klein recreates their discoveries, their stunning triumphs and frequent failures, and their unceasing, tumultuous, and ferocious battles in the marketplace.
"Starred Review. An endlessly entertaining and informative treatment of a vast, sometimes difficult subject." - Kirkus Reviews.
"This book will especially satisfy new or younger devotees of American applied scientific and technological history. Recommended for public libraries." - Library Journal.
"Starred Review. In an ambitious and expansive narrative, Klein chronicles the advent of steam power and the electrification of America." - Publishers Weekly.
"This well-oiled colossus of a book—its moving parts working together like a mighty machine—illuminates an epic period of national growth, when the country's first big carbon footprints were made on a march toward greatness and plenty." - Thomas Mallon, author of Henry and Clara, Bandbox, and Fellow Travelers.
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Maury Klein is the author of many books, including The Life and Legend of Jay Gould, Days of Defiance: Sumter, Secession, and the Coming of the Civil War, and Rainbow's End: The Crash of 1929. He is professor emeritus at the University of Rhode Island.
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