Overview

Telegraphy in the nineteenth century approximated the internet in our own day. Historian and electrical engineer David Hochfelder offers readers a comprehensive history of this groundbreaking technology, which employs breaks in an electrical current to send code along miles of wire. The Telegraph in America, 1832-1920 examines the correlation between technological innovation and social change and shows how this transformative relationship helps us to understand and perhaps define modernity. The telegraph revolutionized the spread of information-speeding personal messages, news of public events, and details of stock fluctuations. During the Civil War, telegraphed intelligence and high-level directives gave the Union war effort a critical advantage. Afterward, the telegraph helped build and break fortunes and, along with the railroad, altered the way Americans thought about time and space. With this book, Hochfelder supplies us with an introduction to the early stirrings of the information age.

Full Product Details

Author:   David Hochfelder (University at Albany, SUNY)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Imprint:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.499kg
ISBN:  

9781421407470

ISBN 10:   1421407477
Pages:   264
Publication Date:   26 February 2013
Recommended Age:   From 17
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

"Acknowledgments Introduction Why the Telegraph Was Revolutionary 1. ""Here the Telegraph Came Forceably into Play"" 2. ""As a Telegraph for the People It Is a Signal Failure"" 3. ""There Is a Public Voracity for Telegraphic News"" 4. ""The Ticker Is Always a Treacherous Servant"" 5. ""Western Union, by Grace of FCC and A.T.&T."" Conclusion The Promise of Telegraphy Chronology of the American Telegraph Industry Notes Essay on Sources Index"

Reviews

While offering new insights into the relationship between Western Union and Associated Press, Hochfelder's strongest contribution to the history of telegraphy is his analysis of wiring on financial markets and the subsequent spread of speculation and gambling fueled by private wires and telegraph ticker services. -- Daniel Wuebben MAKE: A Literary Magazine 2013 In The Telegraph in America, 1832-1920, David Hochfelder provides a taut and consistently intelligent history of the telegraph in American life. The book is notable for both its topical breadth-encompassing war, politics, business, journalism, and everyday life-as well as its focused, argument-driven chapters. -- Jeff Pooley New Books in Communications 2013 The author... develops nuanced analyses to the impact of telegraphy on upon American life. -- Alex Nalbach EH.Net 2013

Author Information

David Hochfelder is an assistant professor of history at The State University of New York, Albany.

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