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The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-Line Pioneers
by: Tom Standage

Used Price: $0.49
Collectible Price: $99.99
Third Party New Price: $3.65

Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 384.109
EAN: 9780802713421
ISBN: 0802713424
Label: Walker & Company
Manufacturer: Walker & Company
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 227
Publication Date: 1998-10
Publisher: Walker & Company
Sales Rank: 713218
Studio: Walker & Company

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Until the mid-1800s, communicating across distances was limited to ship or horse. Then the telegraph revolutionized world-wide communications. Like the Internet today, the new network was hyped by advocates and dismissed by skeptics.

Amazon.com Review:
Imagine an almost instantaneous communication system that would allow people and governments all over the world to send and receive messages about politics, war, illness, and family events. The government has tried and failed to control it, and its revolutionary nature is trumpeted loudly by its backers. The Internet? Nope, the humble telegraph fit this bill way back in the 1800s. The parallels between the now-ubiquitous Internet and the telegraph are amazing, offering insight into the ways new technologies can change the very fabric of society within a single generation. In The Victorian Internet, Tom Standage examines the history of the telegraph, beginning with a horrifically funny story of a mile-long line of monks holding a wire and getting simultaneous shocks in the interest of investigating electricity, and ending with the advent of the telephone. All the early 'online' pioneers are here: Samuel Morse, Thomas Edison, and a seemingly endless parade of code-makers, entrepreneurs, and spies who helped ensure the success of this communications revolution. Fans of Longitude will enjoy another story of the human side of dramatic technological developments, complete with personal rivalry, vicious competition, and agonizing failures. --Therese Littleton

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Well Worth My Time and Money
The book discusses the history of the telegraph. The book explains the technologies preceding the telegraph, the battles between the inventors of the telegraph, the telegraph's role in spawning new technological innovations (and creating enormous wealth for some of those folks) and the ways that the telegraph did--and did not--change society.

Its thesis is that many phenomena we associate with a global electronic network first occurred in the 19th century, not the 20th, which has made our celebration of the Internet's novelty (a topic at its zenith in 1998 when the book was published) ahistorical. The book thoroughly delivers on this thesis. One particular anecdote really hammered this point home. The book talks about a telegraph-mediated "online wedding" that first occurred...before 1848. (Indeed, the book "Wired Love" was published in 1879 and an article "The Dangers of Wired Love" ran in 1886). Yet, ... Read More

Rating:

- An excellent book!
The invention of the telegraph, its development and its use in the 19th century as a communication device is discussed in this excellent volume. Real stories of telegraphy, some of them quite surprising, provide background to the story of this technology, a real leap forward in its time. Well organized with good writing this is an excellent book. Whether you are fascinated by telegraphy or have never really thought about it before, this book will keep you entertained.

Rating:

- The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see...
Winston Churchill said, "The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see." It is, perhaps, surprising to learn that much of what has taken place with the Internet could have been predicted by studying events in the past 150 years. The invention, deployment and integration of the telegraph into society and business practices mirror the Internet in a great many ways.

The Internet has shrunk the world (like never before?), enabled business to take place at the speed of light (like never before?), caused information overload (ditto), and even enabled new mechanisms of dating and marriage to take place (again ditto). One wonders if by studying the rise (and fall) of the telegraph and related technologies we can predict the next "big things" and opportunities in this age of the internet?

This is a terrific "gee-whiz" book, an easy read on an airplane. It will likely amuse ... Read More

Rating:

- The Victorian Internet - a worthy reprise
The title provides us with an anachronistic context to consider the book and The Victorian Internet weaves an engaging tale of the conception, birth, growth, and decline of the telegraph. The book tells a story that is intriguing, entertaining, and compelling. It presents facts and characters that would fail in fiction because they would stretch credibility beyond the breaking point. In other words, you just can't make this stuff up. This book provides a full gallery of oddballs, heroes, villains, victims, and criminals that would make any Victorian wax museum a prime attraction. The author, Tom Standage, artfully stages this cast of characters in the fog of technical discovery. We do not see these characters as people of vision and will who triumph as the best and brightest of their time, although many of them certainly were just that, but rather as authentic people who bring to the story their strengths, weaknesses, ... Read More

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