Tesla: Inventor of the Modern

Excellent biography. Tesla was both a remarkable inventor -- giving us electric motors, robots, and radio -- but a fascinating individual. Well written and engaging.

Fascinating biography of a remarkable individual. Richard Munson shows both the inventor and the person. Well written. Great stories. Provides Tesla his due as a great scientist.

This book, thankfully, is about the man, not the car. What a fascinating genius! What a dramatic life! Munson effectively reveals both in a fast-paced, but fact-filled, biography. "Tesla: Inventor of the Modern" is a real treat of a read.

I received this book compliments of the author. "Day after day I asked myself what is electricity and found no answer. Eighty years have gone by since and I still ask the same question, unable to answer it." - Nikola Tesla Tesla was a very complicated human being. He was intelligent, neurotic and driven. He accomplished great things, but also sabotaged his own efforts. He couldn't work well under others and had no savvy regarding money. He was a bigger bundle of contradictions than most of us. Richard Munson does a fine job of showing the contradictions while pointing to the importance of Tesla's contributions to the life we take for granted today. Because of Tesla's work with alternating current, electric power is not confined to factories, businesses and homes of the very rich. He and George Westinghouse had to put up a serious fight against Edison and his allies who pushed the safer direct current. That was a huge and very concrete gift toward modern living. Tesla never had interest in producing commercially viable products and as his interests shifted financing became harder to obtain. To my mind he became a 'theoretical inventor'. The things he foresaw make it easy to see why Steve Jobs and Elon Musk became fanboys. Munson's assessment that Tesla deserves greater recognition is hard to argue against. Munson includes a brief chapter called The Marvel of Electricity as an appendix. You may want to read it early on. The story Munson tells is of a fascinating life a lack of understanding about currents and motors shouldn't keep you from reading it.

Although I hadn't read much, I had long been fascinated by Nikola Tesla, although my initial image was that he was quite odd. This biography admits his quirks, but also explores his brilliant inventions and reveals Tesla as a charming individual with much drama in his life. This now is one of my favorite biographies.

Very nice to see this book and its subject gaining traction recently. Tesla was a remarkable man and reading this book, it feels like you're getting to know him. I actually prolonged the process of reading this book. I could have read it in a couple of weeks but I liked my new friend too much and I didn't want to say goodbye. I reread that first chapter a few times, it's adorable. I sped up the reading process in the last few chapters when he kept on being ripped off by investors because it was quite sad. There are also numerous points in the book I laughed out loud at Tesla's own quotes - Munson does a good job finding a balance between using quotes to tell the story through Tesla's own perspective, and also giving the flamboyant and dramatic inventor a warranted reality check every once in a while. But my point is, the author does not sacrifice the personality of the man behind the inventions to tell the story of his amazing achievements and visions, and I appreciate that in a good biography. It definitely benefits it. I also have to give this book 5 stars because I used it as a source in an essay I wrote last semester, and then that essay won a contest. Plus my dad read it and liked it too. Nice work, Munson.