Brilliant book

Look I have to say that this book was way off the mark.The author lost all
his credibility as soon as I checked the index and saw that there was not a
single reference to Tesla. Not ONE. That's like writing the history of Christianity
and forgetting to mention Jesus Christ.Had it not been for Nicola Tesla the whole world would still be running off a battery. Tesla was brilliant and this guy neglects to mention
him????? No. As soon as I saw that- I knew he was going to glorify
Edison.That's the way it works. You dismiss Tesla- you lie about Edison
You make him into a great man when in fact Edison stole most of his ideas from Tesla.
I should've stopped reading the book right then and there.To me it was all
worthless propaganda.Edison was a crook. Period. All he did was discover the use of tungsten
so that light bulbs could last longer. That's it.
If you have any knowledge of electricity- don't read this book.
It'll make you sick with disgust.
JM

Well, this was a bit surprising of a read. Here I assumed that I was taking a break from history to get into some science and instead I’m reading about the history of notorious inventors. It’s simple read, interesting, and really for people who want to review some key scientists that contributed to our understand of electricity today. I was surprised by the lack of Tesla as he was preached almost religiously in university. It was overall it was fairly enjoyable.

What would your life be like if there was a total blackout? I mean, electricity stops being generated. Well, there would be pandemonium; absolute anarchy would rule the streets. Think about it; electricity is entwined with our lives now, especially in places like the United States. Batteries would last for a while, but the internet would stop since the server farms underlying it would not get electricity. Cars would work, but the gas stations or petrol stations would not. Food would rot without refrigeration.

"Electric Universe" describes the development of electrical devices and theories utilizing electromagnetism. David Bodanis focuses on the people and their relationships rather than the equations. The inventions are the ones you would expect; the telegraph, the telephone, the electric lightbulb, the radio, the transatlantic cable, and so on.

Electrical forces have existed since the dawn of time, but we haven't always utilized them. It took such visionaries as Joseph Henry, Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and others to develop the technologies and ideas that support our modern lifestyles.

This book charts the history of electricity from its discovery to the current day. It shows how, along the way, the understanding of the nature of electricity grew from a stream of electrons gushing through a wire to the current perception of it. For each stage, Bodanis, the author, gives amusing accounts of the lives and motivations of the scientists involved, how they furthered contemporary understanding, the related inventions and their impact on society at the time.

Bodanis' style is humorous and the book unfolds like a well-developed fiction plot, always keeping the reader itching to find out what happens next. It is no textbook, and written for a general audience. As such, no previous physics background is necessary. However, in keeping the book accessible to a larger public, Bodanis skips quickly over details, so those who do have some background and want to gain an insight into the discoveries might be left a little frustrated.

All in all, it is an enjoyable book which keeps you hooked from start to finish like a fiction novel. There is hardly any kind of reader to whom I would not recommend it!

Very enjoyable

More of a historical book than an analytical or conceptual one. Author never goes into too much depth explaining the science... just keeps referring to 'loose electrons shaking around'. Pretty enjoyable read, though, with good story-telling technique. Ranked 4 stars for this, but debated a 3 star rating due to the author depicting many of the scientists/inventors as being definitively either really admirable or really horrible individuals. I feel like I'd need to read or learn more about each person before accepting the author's opinions (but he could be totally spot on; this is more a reflection of my ignorance, hence going with 4 stars instead of 3). Also, Tesla never mentioned?

If you want to learn about electricity and magnetism, read a textbook. That's not what this book is for. Instead, this is a wonderful introduction to some of the people behind the major discoveries and developments involving electricity. You'll learn a little bit about some of the science on a very surface level, but the point of this book is to bring to life the people involved and, that, I think it does very well.

There are always going to be a few key people missing (some more about Tesla would have been nice) but for those Bodanis chose to talk about, he does a phenomenal job. I particularly liked the section on Alexander Graham Bell posed as an adorable love story.

I read this hoping to get some fun, personal anecdotes to add color and humanize the lectures in my electricity and magnetism class, and I definitely got that. Well done, interesting, and worth a read.

This book was a fair read, but he never mentioned Tesla. I liked the history of the radar. Not sure what else to say about this book. One interesting thing is that when I visited the Henry Ford Museum there was hardly any mention of Tesla in the whole museum, but there is a lot on Edison. I believe that Tesla has been pretty much ignored in the past, but recently he seems to be getting the credit he is due.

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.

If you are looking for a book that will teach you about electricity, what it is and how it operates, this is not the book for you. I did really enjoy the history of how various inventors made their discoveries, but the author assumes that his readers have a lot more knowledge then they may have.
Very frankly, he is not very good at explaining how electrons work and seems happy to envelope the topic in a cloak of mystery, rather than giving the reader a good explanation, although in a few places he does a good job in getting across his point, like in his explanation of what a volt is.
I found the notes in the back of the book interesting, but even as a science teacher, I would not want to spend that much time looking up the sources.

This was a really good book on the history of electrisity which i strongly recommend for those who are interested in electrisity and science. The book makes you want to learn more about all kinds of different aspects of elect... but also about World War 2 and history in general.