Böcker av Michael W Simmons

"Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison: The Rival Inventors Who Powered the Modern Era" is an enthralling two-in-one volume that unites the remarkable stories of two of history's most extraordinary inventors. Authored by Michael W. Simmons, this composite work weaves together the parallel narratives of Tesla and Edison, whose innovations and rivalry forged the path of the technological age. The first section, derived from "Nikola Tesla: Prophet of The Modern Technological Age," immerses readers in the mysterious and groundbreaking world of Nikola Tesla. Renowned for inventions like the induction motor and contributions to electrical engineering, Tesla's life was filled with achievements that bordered on the magical. This book takes readers from Tesla's extraordinary childhood experiences in Croatia, through his fierce competition with Edison, to his ambitious projects that revolutionized technology and occasionally, like in New York, almost literally shook the world. Relationships with key figures such as Mark Twain, J.P. Morgan, and Albert Einstein are explored, revealing the depth of Tesla's impact in various spheres. Transitioning to "Thomas Edison: American Inventor," the second section of the book, readers encounter the quintessential story of American innovation. Edison's journey from conducting experiments in his youth to inventing the phonograph and the incandescent light bulb is a testament to his inventive genius. Through Edison's personal writings and contemporary accounts, the book vividly brings to life the experience of witnessing Edison's inventions for the first time. His friendships with notable individuals like Henry Ford and his wartime efforts offer a comprehensive view of a man whose inventions illuminated the world. Together, these stories form "Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison: The Rival Inventors Who Powered the Modern Era," a compelling narrative that not only chronicles the lives of these two great men but also paints a vivid picture of how their inventions and rivalry catalyzed the dawn of the modern technological era. This combined book is an indispensable read for anyone fascinated by the history of innovation and the personal stories behind the figures who have shaped our world.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was, for much of her life, the most famous woman in the world. First as the chic, sophisticated wife of President John F. Kennedy, she was the woman who brought Paris to its heels and turned the White House into the living museum of American history that it is today. After her husband's assassination, she served as a symbol of strength to Americans reeling from the tragic events of November 22, 1963. The black-veiled widow who presented a stoic face to the world during Kennedy's funeral procession seemed capable of doing no wrong.But in her private life, Jackie was tormented by the Kennedy assassination to a degree that few people outside her immediate circle ever realized. After the assassination of her brother-in-law Robert F. Kennedy, she stunned the world, and her own closest relations, by marrying Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who was twenty-three years older than her. Suddenly vilified by the press as a fortune seeker who had turned her back on the American people, she would spend the rest of her life struggling to gain the one thing that she had been denied in her life of immense privilege: control over her own destiny.

Three-foot-tall hairdos, "let them eat cake", and the guillotine: this is the sum total of what most people know about Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France. The wife of King Louis XVI and the daughter of Maria Teresa, Holy Roman Empress did, indeed, wear her hair three feet high, when she wasn't wearing straw bonnets and simple muslin gowns and playing at being a dairymaid at her fantasy retreat of Petit Trianon. But she never said "let them eat cake", nor was she the vain, shallow creature who was said to have drained the coffers of France to pay for her luxuriant amusements. The guillotine was real, however.In this book, you will read about life of the woman who was born an insignificant archduchess, who defied all expectations for her future by marrying the heir to the throne of France, only to go seven years without consummating her marriage. The victim of a misogynistic, sex-obsessed tabloid pamphlet industry, Marie Antoinette went from being a popular young queen to the most hated woman in France. The national obsession with the foreign born queen ignited a revolution, destroying a thousand year old monarchy-and the lives of everyone she loved.

A Dictionary of American Presidents Vol. 1: Presidents 1-24 George Washington to Grover Cleveland offers an introductory glimpse into the background, upbringing, education, and political agendas of every American president from the years following the Revolutionary War to the end of the 19th century and Reconstruction. The first in a two-volume collection, this book offers the reader the opportunity to trace the development of the United States and the office of the Presidency from its inception in 1789 to the brink of the 20th century. This lively, informative examination of the people and events that shaped the first one hundred years of the American presidency answers the question: what sort of person does it take to shepherd a new nation from its rocky, tumultuous beginnings, to an era of increasing international prestige and geographical expansion? From the Founding Fathers and the Era of Good Feelings, to the Civil War and the Gilded Age, from Virginia plantations to log cabins on the western frontier, from self-taught lawyers to storied military heroes, from the Bill of Rights to the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution: the story of the American presidency is neither more nor less than the story of the American nation.

The Romanov family ruled as tsars and emperors of all Russia for just over three hundred years-nineteen men and women in total, some of them brilliant, some of them mad, most of them somewhere in between. The story of the Romanovs begins in Moscow in 1613, and ends in Ekaterinburg in 1918, at the beginning of a revolution, where Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and their five children were slaughtered by a Soviet death squad.In this book, you will learn about the lives and reigns of each Romanov emperor and empress. Read about Peter the Great, who kept company with peasants and pie sellers but had his own son tortured to death; Catherine the Great, who finally convinced Europe that there was more to be found in the far north than just snow and barbarians; Alexander I, the gallant emperor who famously defeated Napoleon in 1812; Alexander II, who freed the serfs and survived five assassination attempts before perishing in the sixth; and Nicholas II, who ended the Romanov dynasty in 1917 when he abdicated the throne on behalf of himself and his son, the hemophiliac Alexei, who would never be emperor but is now considered a saint. The Romanov DynastyMichael I (1613-1645)Alexei I (1645-1676) Fyodor III (1676-1682) Sofia Alekseyevna, regent for co-tsars Ivan V and Peter I (1682-1689)Ivan V (1682-1696)Peter the Great (1682-1725)Catherine I (1725-1727)Peter II (1727-1730)Anna I (1730-1740)Anna, Duchess of Courland, regent for Ivan VI (October 1740-December 1741)Elizaveta I (1741-1761)Peter III (January 1762-July 1762)Catherine the Great (1762-1796)Paul I (1796-1801)Alexander I (1801-1825)Nicholas I (1825-1855)Alexander II (1855-1881)Alexander III (1881-1894)Nicholas II (1894-1917)

Apart from Abraham Lincoln the most famous name of the Civil War is undoubtedly that of Ulysses S. Grant. He was the first Lieutenant General created by the American army since George Washington. After the war, he was the only president between Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson to be elected to two successive terms in office. His legacy as a military strategist is unparalleled to this day: American victory in the first and second world wars was achieved by upholding the strategic doctrine of overwhelming force that Grant established in his relentless pursuit of Robert E. Lee during the Overland campaign.In this book, which focuses exclusively on Grant's military career, you will read about the young infantry officer and quartermaster who served in the Mexican-American War under Zachary Taylor, whose common-sense approach to leadership would serve as a role model for Grant's own command style. You will also read the highlights of every major battle Grant fought during the Civil War, including his great victories at Forts Henry and Donelson, Shiloh, and Chattanooga, his near disastrous failure at Cold Harbor, and at last the long campaign through a Wilderness and beyond that ended in Lee's surrender at Appomattox in 1865.

Mary Stuart became the Queen of Scots when she was only a week old. While she was still a baby, Henry VIII burned and pillaged the Scottish countryside to force her betrothal to his son Edward. The skillful politicking of her mother, Marie de Guise, resulted in Mary's betrothal to the son of the French king when Mary was five years old. She was sent to France to be educated as a French princess. There, "the little Queen" was adored and admired. But when her husband died a year after succeeding to his father's throne, Mary surrendered to duty and left her beloved France behind to return to the homeland she barely remembered, and be Queen of the Scots in deed as well as in name.Six years, two disastrous marriages, two sordid murders, and one abduction later, Mary Stuart went from being an adored and popular young queen to being the most hated woman in Scotland. Taken captive by her own lords and nobles, she was forced to abdicate the throne. A daring escape in the middle of the night led to a heroic last stand against her enemies. In the end, however, the last queen of Scotland was forced to take refuge with the most dangerous woman in Britain: Elizabeth I.

The tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, triggered an unprecedented worldwide outpouring of grief from the public that adored her ever since she was first identified as the girlfriend of the Prince of Wales in 1981. Ever since August 31, 1997, people have struggled to account for the depth of the impact she seemed to have on people's hearts and minds. First the little girl who felt that she had disappointed her family by not being a boy, then the schoolgirl who preferred pranks to studying, then the shy kindergarten teacher who won the heart of Prince Charles, Diana's anonymity ended forever only a few weeks after she began dating the heir to the British throne. Over the next sixteen years, she lived her life in the public eye-a smiling, dutiful royal wife and mother, who eventually rocked the monarchy to its foundations by disclosing the details of her troubled marriage to the world, shining a light on the hidden life of the notoriously private royal family.This book examines the contrast between the private Diana and the public princess-the troubled yet radiant woman who believed that one must suffer in order to have compassion for others.

As the third son of the legendary Tsar Alexis, Peter the Great was never supposed to rule. But when his older brother died, the ten-year-old boy was proclaimed tsar by a cheering multitude outside the walls of the Kremlin. His destiny seemed assured-until a bloody rebellion erupted, forcing him to watch as his family was impaled and torn limb from limb by a mob of furious soldiers.From that day forward, Peter was determined to tear down the Old Muscovy and usher in a new Russia-dragging his backwards, traditional nobles into the 18th century by their long, bushy beards when necessary. He became the first tsar to sail the ocean, and the first Romanov to visit Europe. Standing six foot, eight inches tall, Peter took Europe in his immense stride, while laboring as a common carpenter in order to learn the skills he needed to modernize his army and build Russia's first navy.From his childhood adventures in Moscow's German quarter, to his earth-shaking victory at the Battle of Poltava, where he singlehandedly broke the back of the Swedish empire, the life of Peter the Great was unlike that of any other man of his time.

Everyone knows that Thomas Edison is America's most famous inventor. But what exactly drove him to invent? Have you ever heard of the phonograph, or the kinetoscope? And what made his incandescent light bulb so special anyway? In this book, you will learn about Edison's busy childhood as a young inventor and entrepreneur conducting chemical experiments aboard a moving train car, his nomadic youth as a wandering telegraph operator, and about the five miraculous years of invention that produced the phonograph and the incandescent light bulb, inventions that made Edison the most famous American in history before he was thirty five years old. Through the inclusion of primary documents, including letters written by Edison himself, his diary entries, and newspaper articles from the 19th century and after, this book will help you see through the eyes of an ordinary American glimpsing electric light for the first time, or listening to records on the phonograph, or viewing the very first motion pictures. From his friendship with Henry Ford, to his work for the American navy during World War I, Thomas Edison was the original American hero, lighting all of history with his extraordinary inventions.

William Shakespeare was the most brilliant writer in the history of the English language. But his life is a complete mystery to us. No biographies were written for almost a hundred years after his death. His friends, family, and all those who knew him as a poet in London's theatrical scene died before anyone could ask them: who was Shakespeare? What was he like? What were his habits, his amusements, his passions?Nearly the only answers we have are those we can divine from reading his plays and poems. Shakespeare's uncanny ability to grasp the technical languages of skilled professions makes it difficult to judge what precisely he got up to during his "lost years"-the two periods of life in which he disappears from the historical record entirely.In this book, you will learn what it is we know for certain about William Shakespeare, and by delving into the plays, you will discover all that can be surmised about his uneasy relationship with authority, the religious conflicts in his family, his relationship with the father who fulfilled his lifelong dream to become a gentleman, and his own unexpected ambition: to become a wealthy, respectable country landlord in his hometown of Stratford.

Who are the Rothschilds? Still making headlines today, their fascinating history stretches back to the Jewish ghetto in Frankfurt, Germany, where the first Rothschild ancestors lived in the House of the Red Shield. There, one man and his five brilliant sons made their fortune as court agents to a royal prince. It would take Napoleon's earth-shattering quest to conquer Europe to scatter the five brothers to the four winds, but when the dust of war settled, there was a Rothschild brother and a Rothschild bank in five cities: London, Paris, Frankfurt, Naples, and Vienna. The era of haute finance had begun, and the legend of a banking dynasty more powerful than any royal family in history was established.In this book, you will follow the progress of the Rothschild family through the centuries. Their ranks included not only bankers and financiers but doctors, scientists, bomb experts, and collectors who amassed not only some of the finest art collections in Europe, but also one of the finest bug collections. Find out for yourself how the Rothschilds prevented wars, crowned and uncrowned kings, helped win the battle of Waterloo, looked down their noses at Nazis, and established a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

Katherine of Aragon: abandoned woman. Anne Boleyn: ambitious upstart. Jane Seymour: virtuous mother. Anne of Cleves: Flanders Mare. Katherine Howard: adulterous whore. Katherine Parr: the one that got away.These are our lingering historical afterimages of the six women who married Henry VIII over the course of his thirty-six-year reign. At the age of 18, Henry succeeded to the English throne and married the Spanish princess who had briefly been the wife of his brother Arthur. Katherine of Aragon was both a virgin and a widow when the prince died at the age of fifteen, enabling Henry to marry her himself. Their marriage lasted sixteen contented years, until suddenly, Henry fell in love with Anne Boleyn and sundered England from Rome in order to keep her.But Henry VIII would not be satisfied even after he took Anne Boleyn for his wife. His vanity, his ego, and his desperate need for a male heir, led him to marry four more women during the last ten years of his life. In this book, you will read about the lives, loves, and secret passions of these women. Four of them died for Henry's pleasure-but two escaped to tell their stories.

What did Alexander Hamilton ever do besides get shot in a duel by Aaron Burr? When it comes to the American government, the answer is: practically everything.Born in the West Indies, Hamilton was the illegitimate child of a Scottish nobleman who lost a fortune in sugar plantations. Orphaned as a teenager, he came to America in search of an education, a home, and the war that would at last bring him fame and honor. As George Washington's most trusted aide, Hamilton helped to win the American Revolution-but after the war, his enemies lost no time accusing him of trying to sell his country back to the British. He was the most powerful member of Washington's presidential cabinet-so why did Adams and Jefferson hate him so much?In this book, you will learn how the author of the Federalist Papers and the first Secretary of the Treasury nearly ruined his career by fighting duels, seducing women, and getting involved in America's first sex scandal. The duel that killed Alexander Hamilton is the most famous duel in American history, but you'll have to come up with your own answer to its greatest mystery: who shot first, Hamilton or Burr?

John D. Rockefeller is held to be one of the wealthiest men who ever lived; he is also one of the most controversial figures in American history. Born of the unlikely union between a strict Baptist matriarch and her husband, a bigamist, alleged rapist, and snake-oil salesman, Rockefeller's early childhood was spent learning how to shoulder an adult's responsibility for his family and turn a deaf ear to the gossip that followed wherever his father went.This book contains highlights from the extraordinarily long life of a man many believed to be little better than a criminal, preying on small business owners to establish the supremacy of the Standard Oil Trust. John D. Rockefeller crushed his competitors and sparked massive public outrage against his businesses. Yet he also saved thousands of lives and helped establish respect for evidence-based medicine in the United States. From his teen years as a bookkeeper in a small commodities trading firm, to his imperial rule over the oil industry, to his early retirement and the decades he spent establishing philanthropic trusts in the fields of education and medicine, you will learn that there is no simple way to pass judgment on John D. Rockefeller's life.

Nikola Tesla: inventor or magician? Tesla was one of the most famous inventors who ever lived, but after his death, he was nearly forgotten. He was a celebrity during the height of America's Gilded Age. In this book, you will read about his friendship with Mark Twain, his furious competition with his former employer Thomas Edison, his uneasy relationship with billionaire J.P. Morgan, and his rivalry with Albert Einstein. During his lifetime, Tesla revolutionized the field of electrical engineering with his most famous invention: the induction motor. But that wasn't all he contributed to the world of technology. His coils, turbines, robotic boats, and mysterious "death ray" continue to beguile the imagination and inspire the inventors of the 21st century.But who was Tesla really? This book will take you from his early childhood in Croatia, where he experienced strange optical visions and "luminous phenomenon" that gave him near super-human powers of memory and visualization, to the "War of the Currents", Thomas Edison's bizarre campaign to ruin Tesla's reputation. From trying to fight the Spanish American War with robots, to electrifying the skies of the Colorado desert, and to starting an earthquake in the middle of New York city, learn how Nikola Tesla shaped the world we live in today.

Albert Einstein is universally regarded as the most brilliant scientist of the 20th century. In 1905, during his "Miracle Year" as a clerk in the Swiss patent office, he wrote four papers that revolutionized the field of theoretical physics. Over the course of his career, Einstein introduced modern science to the concept of space-time, inadvertently launched America on the path towards developing the atomic bomb, and was offered the presidency of Israel. He was the first scientific superstar-a world-wide celebrity whose popularity was matched only by his astounding feats of imagination.In his later years Albert Einstein was known as a gentle and lovable man who forgot his socks and rarely combed his hair. But he was much more than an absent-minded genius. He was a fierce individualist, who, as a teenager, renounced his German citizenship rather than serve in the army. As a rebel against every form of authority, an outspoken enemy of anti-Semitism and fascism, and a socialist with an enduring commitment to social justice, you will learn in this book that even as Einstein was setting Newtonian physics on its ear, he considered his most important work to be about something very different: the bettering of humanity.