Nikola Tesla

The War of Currents

He lived in lightning—brilliant, eccentric, often misunderstood. From a Croatian farm to Manhattan’s electric glow, Nikola Tesla carried visions so audacious they read like prophecy: wireless power, radio waves, machines that felt like magic. This is the story of a mind that lit the modern world and the ruthless currents that tried to drown it out.

Sharp, unsentimental, and fast-paced, JD Arden cuts through myth to reveal the human logic behind invention: the equations, the obsessions, and the theater. The War of Currents—AC versus DC—becomes more than a technical quarrel; it’s a collision of ambition, capital, and showmanship, with inventions as weapons and publicity as artillery. Arden’s narrative drills into the trials, alliances, and betrayals that shaped electricity, without softening the contradictions that made Tesla both visionary and tragic.

For readers of intellectual history, science biography, and cultural invention, this is an electrifying close read: lucid on the tech, incisive on the personalities, and relentless on the stakes. Enter the storm and see how ideas fight for the future they invent.

Dry as dust

I have watched two documentaries on Tesla that were fascinating. This book is dry and the virtual voice doesn’t do it any favors.