Customer Reviews
Electric Universe - By: Spider Monkey, 04 Oct 2008 
'Electric Universe' is a short, fascinating book that touches on many facets of electricity & it's use & application. It leaves you with many questions & makes you want to explore some of the themesin greater depth, which is either a positive or negative conclusion depending on your take. I found it to be immensely easy to read, but superficial & light. It explores the ideas around electricity well without being truly illuminating or deeply informative. This is a great science primer & a good place to start if you want a try a 'popular science' book, but if you've read other science books, or have a passing knowledge of electricity & scientific developmentin that past 100, years then you can give this a miss without any qualms. A solid three star book, good but not excellent.
Trvial and superficial - By: Aspidistra, 28 Sep 2008 
I agree with the other reviewers who considered this book superficial. It only touches upon the interesting experimental aspects of the subject & provides way too much irrelevant padding. Whilst I appreciate it may make for more easier reading to provide background material on the personalities & have enjoyed this when donein balance by other authors I feel this one simply neglects the main themein favour of irrelevances - why include a paragraph quoting Hitler & why the lengthy discussion of Bomber Harris & air raids on Germany - the obvious point about the influence of radio/radar could have been made much more succinctly. Allin all lightweight & trivial with glaring omissionsin it's central subject.
a great history of the pioneers of electricity - By: Jeremy Williams, 22 Jan 2008 From the subtitle of this book, 'how electricity switched on the modern world', I was expecting much more of a history of the application of electricity. I wanted to know how it spread, how it came to insinuate itself into every aspect of our work & leisure. Although there is some of this, particularly with the telegraph, this book is actually a history of the discovery of electricity, of men & their experiments.
It's still fascinating, & full of anecdotes & stories. If I was a scientist I'm sure I would scoff at the explanations of what electricity is & what it does, but I'm not, so I appreciate the layman's terms. I learned plenty, especiallyin the later chapters as Bodanis explains electricity's rolein biology & psychology. They didn't teach me thatin school. Or if they did I wasn't paying attention.
It's a fine book, & very readable. I just thought I ought to clarify that subtitle.
Superb book - By: Christopher Grieve, 15 Aug 2007 
Don't be put off by the churlish sniffy purist reviews.It is a book for people who are beginning to be interestedin the history of science,not the "experts".It's well-written, accessible, & treats the reader as an intelligent non-specialist human being. Fully deserves the award.The chapter on Alan Turing is brilliantly informative, & very moving.You've got to be a good writer to pull that of.
Makes you want to learn more - By: N. J. Stevenson, 30 Nov 2006 I loved this book & couldn't put it down.It helped me to understand the basics behind radio, radar, computers, nervesin the body, telegraphs & telephones to name but a few. These are things I've always wanted to understand.True at times it doesn't go into very detailed theory but this book is meant to be an overview of electricity & would be difficult to satisfy everyonein one book & it isin no way overly simple. After reading it it has given me the desire to learn even more & I believe it is a great introduction to the subject.
