The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the

The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World
- Used Book in Good Condition
At the height of his fame Thomas Alva Edison was hailed as â€œthe Napoleon of inventionâ€ and blazed in the public imagination as a virtual demigod. Newspapers proclaimed his genius in glowing personal profiles and quipped that â€œthe doctor has been calledâ€ because the great man â€œhas not invented anything since breakfast.â€ Starting with the first public demonstrations of the phonograph in 1878 and extending through the development of incandescent light, a power generation and distribution system to sustain it, and the first motion picture camerasâ€”all achievements more astonishing in their time than we can easily grasp todayâ€”Edisonâ€™s name became emblematic of all the wonder and promise of the emerging age of technological marvels.

But as Randall Stross makes clear in this critical biography of the man who is arguably the most globally famous of all Americans, Thomas Edisonâ€™s greatest invention may have been his own celebrity. Edison was certainly a technical genius, but Stross excavates the man from layers of myth-making and separates his true achievements from his almost equally colossal failures. How much credit should Edison receive for the various inventions that have popularly been attributed to himâ€”and how many of them resulted from both the inspiration and the perspiration of his rivals and even his own assistants? How much of Edisonâ€™s technical skill helped him overcome a lack of business acumen and feel for consumersâ€™ wants and needs?

This bold reassessment of Edisonâ€™s life and career answers these and many other important questions while telling the story of how he came upon his most famous inventions as a young man and spent the remainder of his long life trying to conjure similar success. We also meet his partners and competitors, presidents and entertainers, his close friend Henry Ford, the wives who competed with his work for his attention, and the children who tried to thrive in his shadowâ€”all providing a fuller view of Edisonâ€™s life and times than has ever been offered before. The Wizard of Menlo Park reveals not only how Edison worked, but how he managed his own fame, becoming the first great celebrity of the modern age.
Country USA
Brand CROWN
Manufacturer Crown
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2007-03-13
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781400047628

Country	USA
Brand	CROWN
Manufacturer	Crown
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2007-03-13
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781400047628

The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World