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The Age of Edison: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America (Penguin History American Life) Hardcover – February 21, 2013

by Ernest Freeberg (Author)

54 customer reviews

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The late nineteenth century was a period of explosive technological creativity, but arguably the most important invention of all was Thomas Edison’s incandescent lightbulb. Unveiled in his Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory in 1879, the lightbulb overwhelmed the American public with the sense of the birth of a new age. More than any other invention, the electric light marked the arrival of modernity.

The lightbulb became a catalyst for the nation’s transformation from a rural to an urban-dominated culture. City streetlights defined zones between rich and poor, and the electrical grid sharpened the line between town and country. “Bright lights” meant “big city.” Like moths to a flame, millions of Americans migrated to urban centers in these decades, leaving behind the shadow of candle and kerosene lamp in favor of the exciting brilliance of the urban streetscape.

The Age of Edison places the story of Edison’s invention in the context of a technological revolution that transformed America and Europe in these decades. Edison and his fellow inventors emerged from a culture shaped by broad public education, a lively popular press that took an interest in science and technology, and an American patent system that encouraged innovation and democratized the benefits of invention. And in the end, as Freeberg shows, Edison’s greatest invention was not any single technology, but rather his reinvention of the process itself. At Menlo Park he gathered the combination of capital, scientific training, and engineering skill that would evolve into the modern research and development laboratory. His revolutionary electrical grid not only broke the stronghold of gas companies, but also ushered in an era when strong, clear light could become accessible to everyone.

In The Age of Edison, Freeberg weaves a narrative that reaches from Coney Island and Broadway to the tiniest towns of rural America, tracing the progress of electric light through the reactions of everyone who saw it. It is a quintessentially American story of ingenuity, ambition, and possibility, in which the greater forces of progress and change are made visible by one of our most humble and ubiquitous objects.

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Product Details

Series: Penguin History American Life
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The (February 21, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1594204268
ISBN-13: 978-1594204265
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #536,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #23848 in Books > History > Americas > United States
- #33243 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences

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Customer Reviews

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3 star		13%
2 star		7%
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful

Excellent. "And then there was light..."

By D. Graves on February 22, 2013

Format: Hardcover

While I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about Edison and the miracles of Menlo Park, I felt - upon reading this book - rather ignorant of the import and impact the advent of electric light had on American society. Five years ago, here in New Hampshire, an ice storm knocked out power for eleven days; and eleven long, dimly lit nights. Even with the best of modern gas lamps, candles and flashlights, it was a different world without electric light. What the author here, Freeberg, does is walk us through the change in worlds Edison provided - out of the darkness and into the light.

What this excellent book details is not just the impact of the incandescent light bulb on individual lives but, more importantly, its transformative effect on society and America's place in the world. The focus of the Edison Electric Light Company was not in making light bulbs but in a "complete lighting system" - the grid: electric light for all. The author does a marvelous job in giving us a panoramic view of the myriad events and effects of Edison's revolution. It really is a fascinating read.

For example, there were many who fought against Edison in the belief that his light was 'unnatural', that it endangered family togetherness (families usually gathered around one oil lamp at night). And when cities became lighted at night on a grand scale, people in the dark distances stood and stared at what they considered a magnificent, otherworldly display. In the cities, crowds gathered when linemen worked, not in fascination of these men connecting wires but in the good chance that a lineman would suffer a spectacular death by electrocution, a rather common occurrence. On the positive side, American manufacturing output soared, with factories being able to add second and third shifts of production. There is so much more but this review has become a bit long. In conclusion, this is an excellent, engaging book on an important historical invention. Definitely five stars.

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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful

Brilliant Tale of the Light Bulb - A Tale for Many Technologies

By Dr. Terrence McGarty on March 7, 2013

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

The Age of Edison is a compelling tale of technological innovation and the machinations and creations of all those who participated. At the center is Edison, whose fame was a creation of what he accomplished, what he proclaimed, and what the Press found as good news copy, independent of the reality of what was truly happening. I live but a short distance from Edison’s last lab was in West Orange in New Jersey and it is now a National Parks site. Much of what Edison did is memorialized by the many labs, books, and remnants of his hundreds of “inventions”. Of course next to this National Landmark is the Edison battery factory which one may suppose is left in a state of total collapse because the cleanup of the site would be astronomical, but those factors are somewhat missing from the tale.

The book is exceptionally well written and it is really a tale of the electric light, with Edison cast as someone who comes and goes, and yet has a lasting influence. Like so many technological advances there is usually not one person, but many competing for the prize. The goal was clear, light, but the path uncertain. The author details the competition between the arc light and the incandescent light, the need for an infrastructure, and the problems of that infrastructure. Power lines grew, collided with humanity, and in urban areas were driven underground. However they remained to be smashed down during hurricane Sandy, almost 150 years after all of this began. Thus the power industry, unlike the electronics industry rapidly grew, and then froze, for almost a century. But this is a tale of the light bulb, perhaps the most significant driver of that industry.

The author opens with the inventing of the light bulb.Read more ›

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

"... First to live in a world of perpetual invention."

By Amelia Gremelspacher TOP 500 REVIEWER on February 26, 2013

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

This book is as much a story of commerce as it is of invention. Edison was not the first or the only person to develop the incandescent light bulb. But he was the first to understand the context of the invention. His goal, and achievement, was to build the power plant, grid, and finally the consumer of electricity. In this way, he won the battle to light America. But what is more interesting to me is the stage of innovation being set at the time of this book. People for the first time expected new technology. They were prepared for cycles of invention to change the context of lives over and over.

The writing in this book is accessible and clear. The author sets his premise clearly and backs it with the events of the age. I had not thought about the fact that electricity meant the industries of power production, power grid, and life style change. The idea that leisure for everyone now lay at city center after dark is not new, but is explicit in this book. The strength of this book is the gathering of the strings of change into a clear thesis.

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

Impact on America

By Robert G. Rich, Jr. on July 16, 2013

Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase

This is mostly an account of the significant changes that electric light brought to the cities and society of the United States at the end of the 19th century. There are interesting facts that for me illuminated the importance to my parents (both born in the 19th century) of such things as the Chicago Exposition and the "worlds fairs," or the iconic nature of Coney Island, all of which, ablaze with light, dazzled a generation. However, despite marshalling considerable information, the book is not very well written or well organized and therefore somewhat boring to read. Despite Edison in the title, this is neither a biography nor a balanced discussion of his accomplishments. Furthermore the big technical and economic electricity issue of the time, pitting the option of alternating current power against direct current (Edison's choice) for large scale electrification, and such an internationally and scientifically prominent competitor of Edison as Nikola Tesla, are hardly mentioned. This was a choice of my local book club or I probably would have merely skimmed it. That should be sufficient for most interested readers.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

The author painted a portrait of Edison that depicted him as nothing...

This was an interesting book full of history. The author painted a portrait of Edison that depicted him as nothing less than amazing. Read more

Published 11 hours ago by Mister S.

No Problem

Published 1 month ago by Acquisitions, UNLV Libraries

Four Stars

Good read for our book club

Published 3 months ago by nanakathy

thank you

book arrived in excellent condition

Published 5 months ago by Heinrich

I found the amazement of people having electric street lights ...

I found the amazement of people having electric street lights repetitious early in the book. Then also repetitious was the transition from gas to electric. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Judy

It was OK but not something I would recommend to a friend

More a commentary on society than anything about electricity. It was OK but not something I would recommend to a friend.

Published 8 months ago by Rosie Reads

Cultural History of Electric Light

Fantastic history on the Progressive Era. This book does not function as an Edison biography or as a lightbulb history. Read more

Published 9 months ago by JackyBabyT

What Happened Next After Edison Lit Up the Dark

"What was it like," I used to wonder, "to have been born before telephones or radios or indoor plumbing or....? Read more

Published 10 months ago by Owl

Okay, But Could Have Been Better

The book explores the transformative power of electric lighting on (American) civilization over approximatly 60 years, 1875 - 1935. Read more