AC/DC

The Savage Tale of the First Standards War

By: Tom McNichol

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

Long before there was VHS versus Betamax, Windows versus Macintosh, or Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD, the first and nastiest standards war was fought over how electricity would be transmitted around the world: alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC). The savage showdown between AC and DC changed the lives of billions of people, shaped the modern technological age, and set the stage for all standards wars to follow.

AC/DC tells the little-known story of how Thomas Edison bet wrong in that war, eventually losing control over the "operating system" for his future inventions - not to mention the company he founded, which would later become General Electric. Today's Digital Age wizards can take lessons from Edison's fierce battle: control an invention's technical standard and you control the market

©2008 Tom McNichol (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Though a battle over electrical standards sounds dry, this tale is anything but....[The] book tantalizingly scratches the surface of Edison's ingenuity and force of will, Westinghouse's shrewd business sense, and most of all the sheer eccentricity of Nikola Tesla." ( Publishers Weekly)

I loved it

These background stories are exactly what I love to hear while I'm doing monotonous tasks at work.

Great history

This book is a great lesson on history of electricity in America. It tells it like it was and covers what Edison really was...a person willing to do anything including torturing animals to get ahead. Edison has always been held as a hero for the light bulb, but he wasn’t. More people need to know that. Hero’s don’t kill animals for their own greed. Beware there is some details that describe the torture mid-way through. Tesla is the underdog in history and never stooped to Edison’s level. Thank heavens for this immigrant that invented the wonderful A/C that we still enjoy today. The book also includes other wonderful inventors as well. I recommend this book. Narrator is great!

Great book except for the big bang nonsense

Good book about the where our electrical standards cam from. The big bang theory nonsense at the beginning was a rough start though.

Solid information

I appreciated the medium runtime. Good story as well. I would have liked a bit more about Edison’s controversial history but it was probably cut because it wasn’t relevant to the story.

Great story

Well written and well told biographies of electric geniuses. Kept me riveted up to the end.

Very interesting book about electricity

Very interesting book about the history of something that we use daily. The conflict is too common today, but it was the beginning

it was surprisingly good

I was not really sure how much i would like this book but it was surprisingly good.

Delightful

Tom McNichol's AC/DC is delightful. I feel he was a bit biased and leaning towards Tomas Edison. But the book was super informative in respect to the come up of electricity in the US.

Electricity isnt all about Edison

I am a little taken aback at the Edison worship in this book. They briefly mentioned that he lied to borrow from his talented help and they should of expounded on that. I would think they would at least mention Lewis H Latimer, but no. They barely gave a brief history of electricity and such through the years. But hey it was a book that I read so...that's that

An Exciting Book About Dawn of AC vs. DC

I found the book to be a fascinating story of the early days of electrification. Westinghouse, Edison, Tesla etc. were pioneers of using electricity. It’s amazing that these innovators were born into a world without electricity.