Tesla: Man Out of Time is a captivating biography by Margaret Cheney that delves into the brilliant and prescient mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest scientists and inventors, Nikola Tesla. Described as a madman by his enemies, a genius by others, and an enigma by nearly everyone, Tesla was a trailblazing inventor who created astonishing, sometimes world-transforming devices without theoretical precedent.

Tesla not only discovered the rotating magnetic field—the basis of most alternating-current machinery—but also introduced us to the fundamentals of robotics, computers, and missile science. Almost supernaturally gifted, flamboyant, and neurotic, Tesla was troubled by an array of compulsions and phobias yet fond of extravagant and visionary experimentations.

Admired by men as diverse as Mark Twain and George Westinghouse, and adored by scores of society beauties, Tesla was a popular man-about-town. From Tesla's childhood in Yugoslavia to his death in New York in the 1940s, Cheney paints a compelling human portrait and chronicles a lifetime of discoveries that radically altered—and continue to alter—the world in which we live.

This book provides an in-depth look at the seminal accomplishments of a scientific wizard and offers a thoughtful examination of the obsessions and eccentricities of the man behind the science.