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Empires of Light
- Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
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Publisher's summary
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.
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Nikola Tesla was a major contributor to the electrical revolution that transformed daily life at the turn of the 20th century. His inventions, patents, and theoretical work formed the basis of modern AC electricity, and contributed to the development of radio and television. Like his competitor Thomas Edison, Tesla was one of America's first celebrity scientists, enjoying the company of New York high society and dazzling the likes of Mark Twain with his electrical demonstrations. An astute self-promoter and gifted showman, he cultivated a public image of the eccentric genius.
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A detailed examination of Tesla's work
- By Jean on 02-01-14
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The Great Bridge
- The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 27 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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This monumental book tells the enthralling story of one of the greatest accomplishments in our nation's history, the building of what was then the longest suspension bridge in the world. The Brooklyn Bridge rose out of the expansive era following the Civil War, when Americans believed all things were possible.
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An Historian and not a Novelist
- By Tim on 06-01-12
By: David McCullough
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The Path Between the Seas
- The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 31 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The Path Between the Seas tells the story of the men and women who fought against all odds to fulfill the 400-year-old dream of constructing an aquatic passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is a story of astonishing engineering feats, tremendous medical accomplishments, political power plays, heroic successes, and tragic failures. McCullough expertly weaves the many strands of this momentous event into a captivating tale.
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No Stone Unturned
- By Tim on 06-25-13
By: David McCullough
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Chief Engineer
- Washington Roebling, the Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge
- By: Erica Wagner
- Narrated by: Jo Anna Perrin
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
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His father conceived of the Brooklyn Bridge, but after John Roebling's sudden death, Washington Roebling built what has become one of American's most iconic structures - as much a part of New York as the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. Yet, as recognizable as the bridge is, its builder is too often forgotten - and his life is of interest far beyond his chosen field. It is the story of immigrants, of the frontier, of the greatest crisis in American history, and of the making of the modern world.
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Monumental
- By charles mueller on 07-09-19
By: Erica Wagner
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American Eclipse
- A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World
- By: David Baron
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
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In the scorching summer of 1878, with the Gilded Age in its infancy, three tenacious and brilliant scientists raced to Wyoming and Colorado to observe a rare total solar eclipse. One sought to discover a new planet. Another - an adventuresome female astronomer - fought to prove that science was not anathema to femininity. And a young megalomaniacal inventor, with the tabloid press fast on his heels, sought to test his scientific bona fides and light the world through his revelations.
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Just OK.
- By Melanie A Hwalek on 09-18-17
By: David Baron
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Eiffel's Tower
- And the World's Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris
- By: Dr. Jill Jonnes
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
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Reminiscent of Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City, this fascinating account from acclaimed author Jill Jonnes recaptures the 1889 Paris World's Fair. Casting vehement criticism aside, Gustave Eiffel built his tower to be the fair's centerpiece. Perched at the top all summer, he hosted a string of dignitaries.
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Just read the first half
- By Julie W. Capell on 11-08-09
By: Dr. Jill Jonnes
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Supreme City
- How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America
- By: Donald L. Miller
- Narrated by: Frangione Jim
- Length: 29 hrs and 39 mins
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In four words - "the capital of everything" - Duke Ellington captured Manhattan during one of the most exciting and celebrated eras in our history: The Jazz Age. Radio, tabloid newspapers, and movies with sound appeared. The silver screen took over Times Square as Broadway became America's movie mecca. Tremendous new skyscrapers were built in Midtown in one of the greatest building booms in history.
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the background to the NYC we now live in
- By Marcie on 03-05-15
By: Donald L. Miller
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Who Built That
- Awe-Inspiring Stories of American Tinkerpreneurs
- By: Michelle Malkin
- Narrated by: Michelle Malkin
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
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Firebrand conservative columnist, commentator, Internet entrepreneur, and number-one New York Times best-selling author Michelle Malkin tells the fascinating, little-known stories of the inventors who have contributed to American exceptionalism and technological progress.
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Marvelous
- By Susan on 05-27-15
By: Michelle Malkin
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Storm Kings
- The Untold History of America's First Tornado Chasers
- By: Lee Sandlin
- Narrated by: Andrew Garman
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
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Isaac's Storm meets The Age of Wonder in Lee Sandlin's Storm Kings, a riveting tale of the weather's most vicious monster - the super cell tornado - that recreates the origins of meteorology, and the quirky, pioneering, weather-obsessed scientists who helped change America.
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American Meteorological History at its best
- By Leslye Sinn on 10-23-16
By: Lee Sandlin
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Thunderstruck
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Bob Balaban
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
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In Thunderstruck, Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men: Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication. Their lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time.
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Reader cannot read
- By Bob on 12-08-07
By: Erik Larson
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Tesla vs Edison
- A Captivating Guide to the War of the Currents and the Life of Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Duke Holm
- Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
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Human history has seen many surprising and profound turning points. The ways that humans learned to use raw materials to create activity and resources set the stage for the most compelling and life-altering phase of the modern era, the Industrial Revolution. Born during this time on different continents but connected by similar interests, two men indelibly marked their generation and those that followed with their genius and foresight. This audiobook covers the war of currents and the individual lives of Tesla and Edison.
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Arduous
- By Hasbro on 10-22-18
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What listeners say about Empires of Light
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- M. R. Shenk
- 05-19-18
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.
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- Matthew M Anderson
- 12-29-19
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.
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- John Noh
- 12-31-20
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.
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- Zakbo2
- 10-30-19
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.
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- Tad Reynales
- 03-09-20
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.
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- Eran
- 01-02-19
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..
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- DuPont
- 06-15-17
Get the book vs audio version
The book is nice history read as I am a fan of Tesla but the narrator of the audio has a tick that bothered me...when he gets to the end of a sentence he has certain drawl that wore thin on me and I could not finish listening to the book...I recommend getting the book vs audible version.
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19 people found this helpful
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- Carly W.
- 08-16-19
Could not stand narration
Was looking forward to book but could not tolerate the narration. Had to stop in before end of first chapter
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- G Parker
- 05-14-21
what a waste of a good book.
so much good and very interesting information, such an awful narration. Thanks to one reviewer who suggested listening at an increased speed, I did finish the book, but Audible needs to get this one redone.
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-07-18
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.
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8 people found this helpful