Global Communication Electric – Business, News and Politics in the World of Telegraphy: 15 (Global History Series) - Softcover

Hampf, M. Michaela; Müller–pohl, Simone

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3593399539 ISBN 13: 9783593399539

Publisher: Campus Verlag, 2014

Synopsis

The establishment of a worldwide network of landline and submarine cable connections in the mid-nineteenth century fostered the emergence of new structures and patterns of interaction on a global scale. World politics and a global economy only became possible with the creation of "global communication electric." This book examines the emergence of this global media system between 1860 and 1930 in four sections-"Inter|Nationalisms," "Agents|Actors," "Use|News," and "Space|Time" - that aim to broaden and challenge popular conceptions of telegraphy. In exploring the varied uses of telegraphy, real or imagined, Global Communication Electric expands the notion of the telegraph as a globalizing medium: of connection as well as friction; of political, social, and economic entanglement as well as disentanglement; and of crossing as well as creating distance in space and time.

About this title

Review:

"Heralding the era of globalization, telegraphy as a medium of networked communication reimagined structures of power and patterns of interaction in the mid-nineteenth century. Hampf and Müller-Pohl bring together thirteen contributors to sift the implications of this one-time new media technology. . . . As a global history, the book's major contribution is offering a critical reconsideration of standard narratives of telegraphy as the 'Victorian Internet, ' a weapon of empire, and an abolisher of temporal-spatial constraints to argue instead for a more nuanced (and ultimately less Euro-American-centric) interpretation of the role of telegraphy in the nineteenth century. . . . Recommended."--R. Avance, University of Pennsylvania "Choice "

About the Author:

M. Michaela Hampf is professor of North American history in the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at Freie Universitat Berlin. She is coeditor, most recently, of Machine: Bodies, Genders, Technologies. Simone Muller-Pohl is assistant professor of North American history at the University of Freiburg.

About this edition

• Publisher: Campus Verlag
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 3593399539
• ISBN 13: 9783593399539
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 386