A Thread Across the Ocean: The Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable - Hardcover

Gordon, John Steele

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743208099 ISBN 13: 9780743208093

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2002

Synopsis

On January 8th, 1815, 5300 British troops attacked 4500 entrenched and prepared Americans outside New Orleans. In a battle lasting half an hour, the British suffered casualties totalling 2036. American casualties were 21. It remains to this day the worst defeat in the whole long history of the British Army. But the battle affected the outcome of the war not a bit, for the war was already over and had been for two weeks. A treaty of peace had been signed in Ghent on 24th December, to take immediate effect everywhere upon receipt of the news. Today, in a world in which news, complete with live pictures, flashes around the globe in an instant, time lags such as this are almost inconceivable. No one then thought the situation might be more than marginally improved, or that the US would ever be anything but remote from Europe, the centre of world affairs. But only 40 years later, a group of extraordinary men decided to use the emerging technology of telegraphy to bridge the Atlantic and unite the Old and New Worlds. "A Thread across the Ocean" tells the story of their epic struggle, one that would requite a decade of effort, millions of dollars in capital, the solution of innumerable technological problems - many of them entirely unforeseen before work commenced - and uncommon physical, financial and intellectural courage. But when they were done, these men had changed the world.

About this title

About the Author

John Steele Gordon is a noted business historian, and contributor to The New York Times, Forbes and M. He is the author of The Great Game: The Emergence of Wall Street as a World Power: 1653 - 2000 and Hamilton's Blessing: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Our National Debt.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743208099
• ISBN 13: 9780743208093
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288