Empires of Light

Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World

By: Jill Jonnes

Narrated by: Chris Sorensen

In the final decades of the 19th century, three brilliant and visionary titans of America's Gilded Age - Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, and George Westinghouse - battled as each vied to create a vast and powerful electrical empire. In Empires of Light, historian Jill Jonnes portrays this extraordinary trio and their riveting and ruthless world of cutting-edge science, invention, intrigue, money, death, and hard-eyed Wall Street millionaires. At the heart of the story are Thomas Alva Edison, the nation's most famous and folksy inventor, creator of the incandescent light bulb and mastermind of the world's first direct current electrical light networks; the Serbian wizard of invention Nikola Tesla, an eccentric dreamer who revolutionized the generation and delivery of electricity; and the charismatic George Westinghouse, Pittsburgh inventor and corporate entrepreneur, an industrial idealist who in the era of gaslight imagined a world powered by cheap and plentiful electricity and worked heart and soul to create it. Empires of Light is the gripping history of electricity, the "mysterious fluid", and how the fateful collision of Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse left the world utterly transformed.

©2003 Jill Jonnes (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A very accessible and informative historical account that will be fascinating reading for a general audience as well as those with a more specialized interest." ( Booklist)

Little different than expected

Was less about Tesla and Edison and a lot more about Westinghouse but overall a decent look at the history of electricity. As others have said the narrator is a little off putting, but I got used to it.

great book, poor narration

Very entertaining and informative book. I appreciated the direct quotes from the main characters' own letters and newspaper articles about them. However, the narrator's style was too flat and slow for me.

Play at 1.2X speed

This is a gripping story of three titans of American history, well-researched and well-written.

The narration is a different matter. It reminded me of the Seinfeld episode when George despairs of the irritating books on tape narrator and his whiny, nasaly monotone. That would also describe this narrator. The best idea came from another reviewer who suggested speeding up the narration. After trial and error, I found 1.2X speed to be the most palatable. Not great but acceptable.

Interesting research and story, bad narrator.

The well-researched story of the conflict among these men is well done and is pretty well written. However, this is an Audible book. Narration is important. This narrator sounds like a middle aged man who spent 24 hours snacking on Quaaludes, then decided to read the text to an audience of 5 year olds. Live and learn - I should have just read the book.

Great historical drama; offputting narrator

I very much enjoyed reading this history of the "war" between Edison, Tesla and Westinghouse to win the market for electric lighting in the United States. Jill Jonnes does an excellent job of conveying the social, political and economic environment of the time, as well as creating a suspenseful narrative of the competitions. It is somewhat ironic, today, that all of the light bulbs, whether incandescent or fluorescent, are being replaced by LED lamps -- which, of course, noone could envision back in 1900. Also, the competition between alternating and direct current technologies is similarly amusing when one sees all of the solar electric installations that will be supplying residential lighting and other power to homes going into the future. Either lights and appliances will have to be converted to D/C, or there will have to be D/C to A/C inverters, which may result in 20% power loss, depending on efficiency. The illustrations in the paperback version are black & white and most are small (half page). Haven't see the hardback version yet.

The narrator of the audiobook has a voice that, to me, resembles Keith Morrison on Dateline - the tone and cadence of an undertaker that continually suggests something awful is about to happen but there's nothing that can be done about it (if there's an English or foreign language word for this, please advise). He (Chris Sorenson) has apparently narrated some 240 other audiobooks, so he must have an audience, but I am not a fan. I tried speeding up and slowing down the audio and it didn't help.

a story of giants, who's legacy literally lives on

the epic struggles of Tesla, Edison and their backers tells the story of what is essentially the first VC backed startup, with millions invested in the 19th century (!!) without a clear guarantee for success.
the story is one of any startup, only 100+ years before the term was coined..

wonderful book if you can tolerate the narration

I love the writing, the story and especially the detailed account of how electricity became what it is today. Unfortunately, the monotone up and down rhythm of the narration overshadows the wonderful story.

Shocking

This era in history plays out like an epic sci fi. Filled with history but told with an emphasis on the competition and rivalry. Starts slow but it is worth it!

Excellent history of the early days of electrici

This is a great book telling the story of the early days of electricity in great detail. One gets to relive the 1880s and 1890s, with the politics, financial crises, labor struggles, horses, railroads, patent fights and other aspects of life. The book describes the patent wars, AC vs DC, electric companies and their financing, safety concerns, etc.

The downside of such a detailed book is that it is very long and the story moves slowly. Also, IMO the author is a little too worshipping of individual inventors, when in truth a lot more people contributed to the technological progress of the time. Apart from that, it is a great read and very engaging. one gets to learn about the lives and personalities of Edison, Westinghouse and Tesla.

1.25x Speed and it's great!

After increasing playback speed to 1.25x, I'd say the story is so engrossing that the mediocre narration fades into the background. Overall, very great listen!