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Jill Jonnes

Jill Jonnes, an American historian and author, is seen wearing a black top with a green scarf, set against a dark background.

American historian and author of Empires of Light (2003), the standard popular history of the war of currents. Holds a doctorate from Johns Hopkins and has written widely on urban infrastructure and the engineers who built it. Her account draws on the surviving correspondence of Edison, Tesla, and Westinghouse to argue that Edison's anti-AC campaign was driven less by cynicism than by an inability to write off the capital he had already sunk into direct current.

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