Power Play | Non-Fiction - www.zzdbook.com

Power Play

Apr 30, 2025 3:39 AM

Author:Tim Higgins

Power Play

*A Wall Street Journal Business Bestseller*

'A deeply reported and business-savvy chronicle of Tesla's wild ride' --Walter Isaacson

'A masterclass in narrative journalism' --Bradley Hope

'Exemplary' --The Times

'An exceptional work' --Washington Post

Inside the outrageous, come-from-behind story of Elon Musk and Tesla's bid to build the world's greatest car and the race to drive the future.

Elon Musk is among the most controversial titans of Silicon Valley. To some he's a genius and a visionary and to others he's a mercurial huckster. Billions of dollars have been gained and lost on his tweets and his personal exploits are the stuff of tabloids. But for all his outrageous talk of mind-uploading and space travel, his most audacious vision is the one closest to the ground: the electric car.

When Tesla was founded in the 2000s, electric cars were novelties, trotted out and thrown on the scrap heap by carmakers for more than a century. But where most onlookers saw only failure, a small band of Silicon Valley engineers and entrepreneurs saw potential and they pitted themselves against the biggest, fiercest business rivals in the world, setting out to make a car that was quicker, sexier, smoother, cleaner than the competition.

Tesla would undergo a truly hellish fifteen years, beset by rivals, pressured by investors, hobbled by whistleblowers, buoyed by its loyal supporters. Musk himself would often prove Tesla's worst enemy--his antics repeatedly taking the company he had funded himself to the brink of collapse. Was he an underdog, an antihero, a conman, or some combination of the three?

Wall Street Journal tech and auto reporter Tim Higgins had a front-row seat for the drama: the pileups, wrestling for control, meltdowns, and the unlikeliest outcome of all, success. A story of power, recklessness, struggle, and triumph, Power Play is an exhilarating look at how a team of eccentrics and innovators beat the odds... and changed the future.

Reviews

A masterclass in narrative journalism... with inside-the-room detail and color that give it a cinematic feel

—— Bradley Hope, co-author of the bestseller BILLION DOLLAR WHALE

Compulsively readable... lively, fun and insightful

—— William D. Cohan, bestselling author of HOUSE OF CARDS

Tim Higgins's electric narrative takes us through Tesla's every hairpin turn.... [A] case study on the thin line between madness and genius

—— John Helyar, co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller BARBARIANS AT THE GATE

'A deeply reported and business-savvy chronicle of Tesla's wild ride'

—— Walter Isaacson

Compelling and deeply reported... An exceptional work of business journalism

—— Washington Post

Simultaneously inspirational and troubling, revealing Elon Musk's risky scrambles to invent the future he's constantly promising to deliver

—— Sarah Frier, Financial Times prize-winning author of NO FILTER

Readers fascinated by the hype of Tesla history will find a gold mine of facts and foibles in this immersive analysis

—— Kirkus Reviews

"Exemplary...[Higgins] has interviewed hundreds of people associated with Tesla, both past and present. He knows the financial story like the back of his hand.

—— The Times

in-depth and well-balanced ... a sometimes appalling, occasionally inspiring, and always entertaining saga

—— Publishers Weekly

A well-documented and comprehensive look at Tesla, Elon Musk, and the people involved with its creation and successes

—— Library Journal

[A] sweeping history of the electric-car juggernaut... [Higgins is] right on the button, every time

—— Los Angeles Times

Tense, detailed and well-crafted... Power Play is a business thriller for real

—— Associated Press

Outstanding... a deep dive into the nuts and volts of Tesla

—— Minneapolis Star Tribune

The tale of Tesla's ascent is inherently dramatic and compellingly told

—— NPR.org

A riveting saga...Power Play reads like a novel

—— The Free Lance–Star

Eminently readable...A must-read for any fan or critic

—— Business Insider

Evocative and resonant. These are stories that need to be told.

—— Andy Cato, Groove Armada and Wildfarmed

Poetically written and filled with compelling data about modern-day farming

—— Vogue

Where Rooted ploughs its own shining furrow in its humanity ... but also the gathered, inspirational stories of farmers trying to do better and greener.

—— John Lewis-Stempel

[Silent Earth] should be obligatory reading for politicians and those in power... compelling... [Goulson] draws up his case in a very readable and accessible style... an essential and timely book.

—— John Green , Morning Star

After another frame-wrecking year I can think of no better book to recommend than Dave Goulson's Silent Earth

—— Times Literary Supplement, *Books of the Year*

Goulson's book deserves to be widely read. It is fact-filled and well balanced in the minefield of environmental politics.

—— International Journal of Environmental Studies

Challenging, but also funny and refreshingly low in sanctimony, this book is no frothing polemic. It will doubtless alter many readers' understanding of the systems we all participate in and lead them to make different choices. For others, it should prompt the difficult moral reasoning that those of us who love animals but also profit from their suffering cravenly manage to avoid... Mance is an amiable guide: curious and open-minded.

—— Melissa Harrison , Financial Times

Mance...is spot on to make us confront the horrible truth... [How to Love Animals] will force its readers to stop and think about the incomprehensible scale of unnecessary suffering we impose on our fellow creatures.

—— Julian Baggini , Literary Review

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