Originally Posted by gorn
Edison & the Electric Chair: A Story of Light and Death by Mark Essig. I'm loving this book but I'm not sure how many people it would appeal to. I'm anti-death penalty and I'm studying electrical engineering. So I find it interesting in both regards (I haven't gotten to the electric chair part yet, but I know that Edison was anti-death penalty, but he built the electric chair, running off AC, to show how dangerous AC electricity was, to try to scare people away from Westinghouse. He even tried to get people to use the term "Westinghoused" to mean electrocuted).
If you like that book, read a biography about Nikola Tesla. The dude put Edison to shame by actually inventing the stuff he takes credit for, and fundamentally changing the electrical backbone of the world. No overstatement in that previous sentence. Real American hero stuff.