Here in this book about Tesla, the author takes a look into his life and the inventions that he worked on, and the ones that he had pending but could not get funding for which was very interesting. You also get a look at how his mind would later play havoc with him but I felt this was because he was not able to work because of lack of funds for his inventions. many different ideas and outside forces working against him in this book. A well-researched book.

Tesla thought outside the box before people even knew there was a box.

Nikola Tesla was a mysterious character, and Perko and Stahl unravel that life for readers. Most people recognize Tesla only as a brand of electric car; a few remember the name in conjunction with the Tesla coil “contraption” of school physics classes, but he contributed much more to civilization than just those oddities. In fact, modern life as we know it might not exist were it not for Tesla and his genius, curiosity, and innovation. Somehow school instruction “credits” Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison for “discovering” electricity. While that may be factual, in truth it was Tesla who tamed and harnessed electricity, and this controlling of electricity is what enabled modern society to progress. If one wonders what life would be like without power, even for a moment, an hour, or a lifetime, then thank Tesla for not having this worry.

Nikola Tesla’s birth almost foretold his unique spot in history. He was born precisely at midnight, between July 9 and July 10, 1856. Perko and Stahl explore the Tesla not shown in history books. He struggled with internal demons throughout his life, but perhaps those personal struggles fueled his fanatical curiosity and unrelenting drive. Tesla’s life was filled with strangeness, but with that strangeness came imagination, innovation and creativity.

“Tesla -- His Tremendous and Troubled Life” shows readers the Tesla who had an instinct for solving problems. I received a review copy from Marko Perko, Stephen M Stahl, and The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group. Tesla was a true visionary; a person with a healthy disregard for the impossible who thought outside the box before most people even knew there was a box.

If you are looking for a book that will make you think about everything around you, read this one.

Subtitle: His Tremendous and Troubled Life

Very few people in history are as exciting and mysterious in pop culture as the scientist/inventor Nikola Telsa. This new biography takes a look at Tesla’s life while concentrating on his likely being bi-polar and examining the course of his life in light of how that disorder may have influenced it.


I had read a previous Telsa biography nearly twenty years ago that went in depth on his inventions and business dealings. While this book couldn’t possibly avoid covering the same material, it was done in less depth and the unique slant of examining his mental state throughout his life made it not at all boring. It emphasized Tesla’s unique way of thinking – he visualized and perfected his inventions totally in his mind before constructing them, never committing anything to paper – and his never-ending goal of improving lives for all of humanity even at the expense of enriching himself.

Tesla’s many inventions are covered here, including his most significant – the alternating current system of generating and distributing electricity, radio, radar, robotic automatons, and many others. Later in his life, Tesla was unable to receive funding to continue development on his ideas for distributing free electricity and sending information and messages through the Earth itself, and his infamous ‘death beam.’ This book pointed out that Tesla’s ideas combined with his intent on serving humanity rather than making money made him a threat to the very financiers he relied upon to fund his research. As a result, Tesla spent the last 30-40 years of his life practically begging potential investors for funding.

I gave Tesla five stars on Goodreads. It’s a rather concise account of the legendary man’s life that is not overly technical, yet technical enough to explain the significance of his ideas. It also did a good job of humanizing an inventor whose ways of thinking are still a far cry from what us ‘normal’ humans can identify with.

A psychoanalytic biography of Nichola Tesla. The authors begin with Tesla's childhood in Serbia and follow him until his death in New York. The book dealt with his inventions and financial struggles, but focused on his psychological condition. It is the opinion of the authors that Tesla suffered from Bopolar 1 Disorder, formerly called manic depressive disorder. Tesla was most productive during his manic periods when his mind worked frantically. However, he fell into periods of depression after the mania, which is typical of the disorder. Tesla was also obsessive compulsive and required his food and surroundings to meet strict criteria.
The book is interesting, but drags in places. There was significant repetition and the book would benefit from a more thorough editing process.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Overview:
This book is more than just what Tesla’s ideas and inventions contributed to how life is lived, which was so immense that they are ubiquitous. This book is about who Tesla was, the psychology and culture that made Tesla such an eccentric. Starting with a childhood which prepared Tesla to reason and think critically. But a family tragedy, caused childhood trauma that would shake the foundation of the family and impact Tesla’s psychological makeup. During Tesla’s whole life, there were psychological problems. The specifics are not known, but Tesla had troubling hallucinations, long periods of depressions, and manic states. It was during the manic states that Tesla was most productive, and produced the most innovations. Tesla had periods in which there were too many ideas flowing around that it was a challenge to slow them down, while other periods with barely any. Tesla’s cultural background instilled a desire for Tesla to invent useful things that can help others. To better humankind. For those ideals, Tesla often chose principles over profit. That caused many financially difficult periods. An idealism that made Tesla a bit naïve when dealing with people, as many have betrayed Tesla.

Caveats?
The book’s narrative lacks a bit of flow, making it more difficult to read. A writing style issue is with how the authors describe history, as predetermined, that the events that happened were inevitable. This is problematic because there was a lot of uncertainty to the outcomes of events during the time, which the authors sometimes mention.

Although Tesla’s inventiveness, ingenuity, and intellect cannot be denied, Tesla did not do everything alone. The authors focus on Tesla as a sole and solitary genius, which is the case, but that is not the whole of what made Tesla so great. Tesla saw how the available technology could be used and made extraordinary improvements and inventions. There were many technological ideas that Tesla had that would not be proven or become practical until after Tesla’s death. But all those ideas had others, who may not have had any of Tesla’s abilities, but were able to compete and complete the technology.

Tesla: His Tremendous and Troubled Life by Marko Perko offers an intriguing behind the scenes glimpse into Nikola Tesla's early family life, the events that shaped him, and the mental health issues he had to deal with throughout the years.

Marko did his very best to authenticate details and dates although some of his research turned up different accounts. Sometimes this occurred even with details shared by Tesla himself.When that happened he chose the one that that was shared most often.

I can only imagine the huge amount of effort the author deployed in his research and the resulting comprehensive, fascinating book is extremely well done.

"Tesla - His Tremendous and Troubled Life" by Marko Perko and Stephen M. Stahl is an impressively thorough bibliography of the famous inventor Nikola Tesla. It is very clear that the authors really did their homework as the bibliography is highly annotated with sources and references and many details. Weighing in at nearly 400 pages this is a great source of information for enthusiastic Tesla fans. Since one of the authors is a fellow countryman to Tesla and the other is a psychiatrist with practical experience, this book provides unique insights into Tesla.

Tesla is certainly an exceptional inventor scientist who has clearly made valuable contributions to humanity. This is why I choose to read this book. His tale is simultaneously both uplifting and sad. I wanted to learn more and the authors certainly delivered. My major critique with the book is that the writing tends to be overly emotional showing unbiased intense praise of Tesla and vilifying those that Tesla himself did not like. Occasionally, it felt like I was reading the official bibliography of the founder of a new religion. A neutral journalistic style would definitely strengthen the authors' message.

I thank the authors and publisher for graciously providing an electronic review copy of this book.

This biography of Nikolai Tesla seeks to answer the question: "Who was the real man with an extremely complex psyche/personality, who lived with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and a hyperthymic temperament spilling over at times into high flying bipolar mania and then crashing into devastating depression—and not simply the iconoclastic scientist who invented the modern world?"

DId it answer the question? Yes it did. As someone who went into the book without much prior knowledge about Tesla himself, I thought the information was well-researched and was jam-packed full of details. However, the beginning wasn't really written in a tone meant for the general public. As a result of the tone and detailed nature, I had difficulty picking the book back up each time and almost abandoned it altogether. The tone improved and became more conversational as I read more into his adulthood, his work, and his relationship with other inventors (i.e. contrasting Tesla and Edison). I enjoyed the commentary on his mental illness and how it plagued him throughout his life, particularly regarding his bouts of (hypo)mania turned into depression and the relationship between his mania and productivity.

In general, I would recommend this very detailed book for readers who are interested in the field of engineering or psychology, as either background could serve as a catalyst to learning more about intricacies of his life rather than discovering it for the first time.

I enjoyed this book. It is interesting and written in a conversational tone. It is not too detailed and the authors don’t get bogged down in the science of Tesla’s inventions. Not much time is spent reality discussing psychiatric aspects of Tesla’s life; I thought there would be more of the latter subject. In addition, the book was more of a hagiography than a biography, with the authors making snide remarks about Tesla’s opponents. Overall, though, it is a worthwhile read. Thank you to Netgalley and Rowman & Littlefield, Prometheus for the advance reader copy.