I read the author's first book, E=mc2 a couple of weeks ago, and I loved it! I was excited to walk up to the library and pick this book up. Sadly, it's not as great as I would have hoped. The information is well presented and Bodanis does an excellent job by keeping electromagnetism exciting, but it still reads somewhat flat. The chapter on Heinrich Hertz was particularly disappointing because the author acts more like an editor than a writer: diary excerpts and news-bites comprise the entire chapter!

If you're into science, and were ever curious about exactly what a Watt is, and how it relates to horsepower; or if you're curious about the electrical impulses in your eye--check this book out, and just read out the rough spots. It is worth reading.

Electricity has become an inseparable part of our life. We are so dependent on it that we can’t even imagine a world without electricity in our dreams. This book narrates the story of electricity right from the very beginning and how it transformed the world we live in today.

The author has put in a lot of effort in narrating the technical aspects in layman terms. I was slightly disappointed when the book didn’t speak much about Nikola Tesla as he is one of the pioneers in the field. Other than this I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. It’s a must read for anyone who is curious to know and understand how electricity has become the driving force of our planet.

Was amazed that this book could seriously purport to be a history, popular or not, of electricity without once mentioning (as others seem to have noticed) one Mr N Tesla.
One of my rare two star reviews, I am normally a very forgiving book critic dispensing five stars with reckless abandon, without any fear or favour or influence of any stimulant or substance whatsoever.
So as an author you don't have to work too hard for my laurels to garnish your shoulders, I just have too enjoy the book and get to the end without feeling it has been a trial, I will be investigating the rest of your output Mr Bodanis and shall post the results in due course.

Overall the book covers the history of understanding and development of electricity with stories and different events. I gave it three stars, because it could be written more detailed. I miss more clear explanation on how things work (telegraph, telephone, computer, etc). Therefore half of the time spent on reading this book, was used up for getting some of the background and very basics in physics, electricity, etc. Which I actually don't mind, because I enlightened quite some topics I never cared or know before.
A big big disadvantage: there is not a single reference to Nikola Tesla. This is just dumb. Without him our world would be still running on batteries. From this point of view Bodanis disappointed me.
I also think the book could be written way way better.Plus no real science discussed. (As I said I had to support my curiosity with other sources).
I would recommend it to a younger readers.

David Bodanis' book wins convincing plaudits from Bill Bryson, The Observer, The Sunday Times and The Economist to name but a few - and for good reason. Electric Universe is a fascinating look at electricity in all its forms, effortlessly mixing biography, science, history and humour.

The book is divided into five sections, chronologically detailing the progress of human understanding from 1830 to the present. First, 'Wires' deals with the discovery of electricity, and the first tentative steps of inventions such as the telegraph. Bodanis takes a fascinating look at the way new forms of electric communication changes the world, making it a smaller, more interconnected place. 'Waves' then looks at the increasingly deeper understanding of the way in which electricity worked, covering topics such as electromagnetic fields. The way in which these waves were then put to use are studied in the 'Wave Machines' section, including fascinating biographies of key players in the invention of radar.

Moving away from the discovery and initial uses of electricity to the more contemporary age, the second-to-last section covers Turing's work on computers during the war and his vision for the future, the realisation of the power of silicon, the invention of the transistor and the path to the modern computer world. And finally, 'The Brain and Beyond' looks at the discovery of and science behind the way in which our bodies work, effortlessly and clearly explaining the way in which we are vast, wet computers, with electric charges controlling everything from our nerves to our memory.

Of all these sections, I found two in particular - 'Wave Machines' and 'The Brain and Beyond' particularly fascinating, though more from personal preference and interest rather than any literary reason. In addition to the invention of radar, the former covers a diverse range of people and experiences, discusses the science behind the technology, and touches on the morality (or otherwise) of the way in which technology was used during the Second World War. The latter, 'The Brain and Beyond', is incredibly thought-provoking, illustrating just how miraculous the human body and its inner workings are.

To find any serious flaw with Bodanis' book is difficult. Only two things sprang out at me, and are the sole reason for my dropping the rating a little. The first is that chapter 6, which looks at Hertz's gradual increase in the understanding of electricity, has a slightly cobbled-together feel about it. Composed of excerpts from his diary, I can see Bodanis' point that his own words easily convey his progress in the field. However, page after page of quotes, cut and pasted with little linkage between excerpts, makes for rather bland and disjointed reading.

The second, more of a niggle than a flaw, is that Bodanis includes an excellent appendix detailing further information on points he makes throughout the book, referenced by page number. While it was interesting to reference back to each page and then read the extra information, some linkage the other way would have been appreciated. While I understand that the appendix was doubtless a solution to excessive footnotes, an indication in the main body of the text when further information was available would have allowed for a more flowing reference between the main body of the literature and the array of facts and references at the back.

As a complete package, however, the book is absolutely excellent. Well written, covering an enormous array of time, inventions, uses of electricity, people, human understanding and technologies, Bodanis has done an outstanding job, well deserving of the Aventis Prize for Science Books which it was awarded. It's few and far between that a book manages to balance simplicity with detail, coherence with complex science, man with machine, and fact with imagination. Absolutely worth a read, I'd recommend without hesitation Electric Universe to anyone who wants a great overview of the history of electricity.

[Written 2008]

Uma excelente narrativa de como a eletricidade moldou o mundo, resultado de uma exaustiva pesquisa. O livro ainda traz inúmeras sugestões de leituras complementares. Meu único reparo é o fato do autor não incluir Nicola Tesla.

I read this book before I saw The Prestige and I was so glad of it. There are so many subtle things in the movie that were so much more meaningful to me, especially concerning the backgrounds of Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison.

It's a great read, which tells the stories of lots of people who really lived and things they really did, but it feels more like a collection of short fiction. It's a really engaging read that even people who don't normally go for nonfiction would likely enjoy, especially if the fiction you usually read is Sci-Fi.

I have mixed feelings about this book--the breezy tone struck me as condescending rather than friendly, and most of the stories Bodanis tells are familiar--Michael Faraday's struggles with class prejudice, the work of Edison, Galvani and Volta, etc. But Bodanis did teach me a few things and as I got used to his style I found it less distracting.

This is not, however, anything like a complete history of the discovery of electricity and its applications--Tesla, for example, is nowhere mentioned. And the story pretty much ends with the development of the transistor and the discovery that electric charges pass signals through our nervous systems.

I'm not sure I'd recommend this to anyone over 40...

You could probably find a better history of the subject than this one, although it is a very quick read and provides some interesting information. The story of how Alexander Graham Bell came to invent the telephone really is wonderful. The experiments of Heinrich Hertz are certainly worth reading about. The story of James Watson Watt inventing the radar during WWII is fascinating, and Bodanis gets credit for including a passage about the bombing of Dresden (see Slaughterhouse Five) in order to show the dark side of the technological progress his book is often championing. All in all, the book kind of barrels through a history that has so many fascinating detours it deserves a more epic treatment.

Being a loser who sucks at science, I thought this was a cool, captivating introduction to electricity and its history. Tbh, I think I’m unreliable when it comes to defining how accurate the content is, but it was an interesting and quick read for me personally.

The book was a bit of disappointment as the science was actually limited and most explanations doing nothing to clear things. That plunging your hand into a warm bucket improves your fine motor skills by improving sodium condition in nerves is just frank ridiculous. Lot of tid bits on the scientists involved. Overall definitely average.

Fun introduction to the history of electricity.