![]() ![]() It takes a while to build its momentum, partly because Cravath doesn’t start out to be a particularly interesting character. And the way he gets there, and what he experiences, keep the reader glued to the page until the very end.Įscape Rating A-: This is a story that rewards sticking with it. For years, Westinghouse and Edison fought over the provenance of the lightbulb, the question of which current would power the country, and the life and fate of Tesla, who was a bit too lost in his dreamworld of inventing to know just how much of a catspaw he really was. And into the fray he introduced a third, Nikola Tesla. So the young lawyer placed himself in the middle of the battle between two titans. That his career would end in ignominy if he failed wasn’t something he saw at first – and when he does it nearly flattens him. And Cravath was just young enough at the beginning of the case to be certain that he could. ![]() It was the opportunity of a lifetime – if he could pull it off. So when Westinghouse offered him the job of lead attorney on his case against Edison, he jumped for it. He was too young and too inexperienced to have a clue just what he was letting himself in for. And Edison seemed to have an iron-clad claim, and the legal and monetary resources to back it, that Westinghouse was infringing on his patent.Įnter young Cravath. Westinghouse was also selling light bulbs. Edison took the fight in a direction he was certain he could win. But the battleground wasn’t actually the current. As history knows, AC won the “ War of Currents”, but no one knew that at the time.Įdison and Westinghouse were locked in epic, if metaphorical, battle. George Westinghouse was the leading proponent for alternating current, and was building generators to push his movement. The great inventor, Thomas Alva Edison was a proponent of direct current. The conflict was heightened, exacerbated and pushed to greater levels of mania by the antipathy between the leaders of the competing schemes. In fact, the country was still deciding whether Direct Current (DC) or Alternating Current (AC) would be the way to go. It was an accident, but it certainly sets the stage for what happens next.Įlectricity as a public utility was in its infancy. Young (very young) attorney Paul Cravath witnesses a man’s electrocution on the streets of New York. And that revolution was in the midst of a great battle, admittedly one being fought in law offices and courtrooms, and not with rifles and bayonets.īut this story still begins with a death. In the late 1880s and early 1890s the United States (and the rest of the world) was on the edge of a technological revolution. Men without whom the world as we know it would be much the poorer – and also still in the dark. The story is about the birth of the modern technological world, as midwifed by three extremely different men. This is one of those stories that if it weren’t mostly true, would absolutely shred the willing suspension of disbelief. ![]() As Paul takes greater and greater risks, he’ll find that everyone in his path is playing their own game, and no one is quite who they seem. In obsessive pursuit of victory, Paul crosses paths with Nikola Tesla, an eccentric, brilliant inventor who may hold the key to defeating Edison, and with Agnes Huntington, a beautiful opera singer who proves to be a flawless performer on stage and off. Yet this unknown lawyer shares with his famous adversary a compulsion to win at all costs. Edison is a wily, dangerous opponent with vast resources at his disposal-private spies, newspapers in his pocket, and the backing of J. The case affords Paul entry to the heady world of high society-the glittering parties in Gramercy Park mansions, and the more insidious dealings done behind closed doors. Paul’s client, George Westinghouse, has been sued by Thomas Edison over a billion-dollar question: Who invented the light bulb and holds the right to power the country? A young untested lawyer named Paul Cravath, fresh out of Columbia Law School, takes a case that seems impossible to win. ![]() The person who controls the means to turn night into day will make history-and a vast fortune. Gas lamps still flicker in the city streets, but the miracle of electric light is in its infancy. Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book DepositoryĪ thrilling novel based on actual events, about the nature of genius, the cost of ambition, and the battle to electrify America-from the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Imitation Game and New York Times bestselling author of The Sherlockian Published by Random House on August 16th 2016 Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook ![]()
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