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The Last Lone Inventor
- A Tale of Genius, Deceit, and the Birth of Television
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
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Publisher's summary
In a story that is both of its time and timeless, Evan I. Schwartz tells a tale of genius versus greed, innocence versus deceit, and independent brilliance versus corporate arrogance. Many men have laid claim to the title "father of television," but Philo T. Farnsworth is the true genius behind what may be the most influential invention of our time.
Driven by his obsession to demonstrate his idea, by the age of 20 Farnsworth was operating his own laboratory above a garage in San Francisco and filing for patents. The resulting publicity caught the attention of RCA tycoon David Sarnoff, who became determined to control television in the same way he monopolized radio.
Based on original research, including interviews with Farnsworth family members, The Last Lone Inventor is the story of the epic struggle between two equally passionate adversaries whose clash symbolized a turning point in the culture of creativity.
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The New York Times best seller that tells the story of an overheated stock market and the financial disaster that led to the Great Depression of the 1930s. A riveting living history about Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929. Captures the era, the intoxicating expectancy, the hope that ruled men's heart and minds before the bubble burst and the black despair of the decade that followed.
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Thorough and fascinating
- By Bowen Florsheim on 04-23-21
By: Gordon Thomas, and others
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Fins
- Harley Earl, the Rise of General Motors, and the Glory Days of Detroit
- By: William Knoedelseder
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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This audiobook chronicles the birth and rise to greatness of the American auto industry through the life of Harley Earl, an eccentric six-foot-five, stuttering visionary who dropped out of college and went on to invent the profession of automobile styling, thereby revolutionized the way cars were made, marketed, and even imagined. Harleys Earl’s story qualifies as a bona fide American family saga. It began in the Michigan pine forest in the years after the Civil War, traveled across the Great Plains on the wheels of a covered wagon, and eventually settled in Hollywood, California.
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Great report of amazing history but could do without the WOKE lean..
- By joshua Shaw on 07-02-22
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The Chip
- How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution
- By: T.R. Reid
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Barely 50 years ago a computer was a gargantuan, vastly expensive thing that only a handful of scientists had ever seen. The world's brightest engineers were stymied in their quest to make these machines small and affordable until the solution finally came from two ingenious young Americans. Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce hit upon the stunning discovery that would make possible the silicon microchip, a work that would ultimately earn Kilby the Nobel Prize for physics in 2000.
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Great narration, sloppy writing
- By Constantly Learning on 10-06-22
By: T.R. Reid
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The Mirage Factory
- Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles
- By: Gary Krist
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Little more than a century ago, the southern coast of California - bone-dry, harbor-less, isolated by deserts and mountain ranges - seemed destined to remain scrappy farmland. Then, as if overnight, one of the world’s iconic cities emerged. At the heart of Los Angeles’ meteoric rise were three flawed visionaries: William Mulholland, an immigrant ditch-digger turned self-taught engineer; D.W. Griffith, who transformed the motion picture from a vaudeville-house novelty into a cornerstone of American culture; and Aimee Semple McPherson, a charismatic evangelist.
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Great start, weak completion
- By steve on 05-11-21
By: Gary Krist
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The King of Content
- Sumner Redstone’s Battle for Viacom, CBS, and Everlasting Control of His Media Empire
- By: Keach Hagey
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Sumner Murray Redstone, once feared as the “mad genius” of media who would dump his CEOs for mere wobbles in his companies’ stock price, had built one of the world’s greatest media empires through a series of audacious takeovers constructed to ensure that he always maintained control. Today he controls 80 percent of the voting shares of both Viacom and CBS, meaning that on a whim he could replace the entire boards of two public companies with a combined value of $40 billion.
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Feels biased. Well researched, but not engaging.
- By Anonymous User on 04-03-19
By: Keach Hagey
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1959
- The Year Everything Changed
- By: Fred Kaplan
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Acclaimed national security columnist and noted cultural critic Fred Kaplan looks past the 1960s to the year that really changed AmericaWhile conventional accounts focus on the 60s as the era of pivotal change that swept the nation, Fred Kaplan argues that it was 1959 that ushered in the wave of tremendous cultural, political, and scientific shifts that would play out in the decades that followed.
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Facinating look at a neglected moment in history
- By James on 05-25-11
By: Fred Kaplan
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Strange Angel
- The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons
- By: George Pendle
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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The Los Angeles Times headline screamed: Rocket Scientist Killed in Pasadena Explosion. The man known as Jack Parsons, a maverick rocketeer who helped transform a derided sci-fi plotline into actuality, was at first mourned as a scientific prodigy. But reporters soon uncovered a more shocking story: Parsons had been a devotee of the city’s occult scene.
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Finally on Audible!
- By Jason N on 05-16-19
By: George Pendle
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The Fifties
- By: David Halberstam
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 34 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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The Fifties is a sweeping social, political, economic, and cultural history of the 10 years that Halberstam regards as seminal in determining what our nation is today. Halberstam offers portraits of not only the titans of the age: Eisenhower, Dulles, Oppenheimer, MacArthur, Hoover, and Nixon; but also of Harley Earl, who put fins on cars; Dick and Mac McDonald and Ray Kroc, who mass-produced the American hamburger; Kemmons Wilson, who placed his Holiday Inns along the nation's roadsides; and more.
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one of the very best
- By Chester Chellman on 09-25-18
By: David Halberstam
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Electric City
- The Lost History of Ford and Edison's American Utopia
- By: Thomas Hager
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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During the Roaring Twenties, two of the most revered and influential men in American business proposed to transform one of the country’s poorest regions into a dream technological metropolis, a shining paradise of small farms, giant factories, and sparkling laboratories. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison’s “Detroit of the South” would be 10 times the size of Manhattan, powered by renewable energy, and free of air pollution. And it would reshape American society.
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Feels incomplete
- By M on 12-12-23
By: Thomas Hager
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At the Sands
- The Casino That Shaped Classic Las Vegas, Brought the Rat Pack Together, and Went Out with a Bang
- By: David G. Schwartz
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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The lights are coming down. Frank, Dean, and Sammy are about to take the stage. This is the moment we remember, when Las Vegas became classic. And it was at the Sands. Built in 1952 over the ashes of Hollywood Reporter publisher Billy Wilkerson’s last chance in Las Vegas, the Sands was a collective effort. Underworld figures like Meyer Lansky, Doc Stacher, and Frank Costello provided the cash.
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At the Sands
- By Deedra on 10-14-21
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What listeners say about The Last Lone Inventor
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Fred V.
- 11-10-22
Televisionaries
First rate account of TV that gives due credit to Philo Farnsworth while intelligently including the role of David Sarnoff in making it a pillar of human communication. Great book and worth the time as it frames technological advances in terms of human beings and human aspirations.
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- JPALJ
- 03-29-20
Thank you, Philo.
Great story. Great reader. One of the top books I've come across. Artfully constructed with twists and turns to surprise you in every chapter. The tale is 1/4 drama, 1/4 ingenuity and persistence, 1/4 history, and 1/4 political and corporate machinations. Incredibly insightful. Really fun.
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