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The Victorian Internet - A Review
Apr. 19th, 2015 04:39 pmI reviewed this book on GoodReads on April 12, 2013.
I loved this book! I highly, highly recommend it. The Victorian Internet is an excellent history of the telegraph. But it is not simply a fact-and-name filled book of inventions and advances. It's a social history - focusing on the social impact and societal change that the telegraph brought to the world. And, cleverly he compares the changes the telegraph brought to the Victorian world (especially in England) to changes the Internet has brought about today. This makes a study of the history of science seem so much more relevant. It's also a quick and fun read.
People chatted, dated, and fell in love "on-line", but through the telegraph. Police work was changed by the telegraph. In major cities such as London, there were even problems with overloads of traffic and delays (a problem solved with pneumatic tubes being used to deliver telegraph messages to "the last mile"). It's a fascinating history, and again, a quick and breezy read too.
I did read this book a few years ago, so I don't remember every detail. But I do, still, remember some of the major points of the book. And I highly recommend it.
I loved this book! I highly, highly recommend it. The Victorian Internet is an excellent history of the telegraph. But it is not simply a fact-and-name filled book of inventions and advances. It's a social history - focusing on the social impact and societal change that the telegraph brought to the world. And, cleverly he compares the changes the telegraph brought to the Victorian world (especially in England) to changes the Internet has brought about today. This makes a study of the history of science seem so much more relevant. It's also a quick and fun read.
The telegraph gave rise to creative business practices and new forms of crime. Romances blossomed over the wires. Secret codes were devised by some users, and cracked by others. The benefits of the network were relentlessly hyped by its advocates and dismissed by the skeptics. (Flyleaf description)
People chatted, dated, and fell in love "on-line", but through the telegraph. Police work was changed by the telegraph. In major cities such as London, there were even problems with overloads of traffic and delays (a problem solved with pneumatic tubes being used to deliver telegraph messages to "the last mile"). It's a fascinating history, and again, a quick and breezy read too.
I did read this book a few years ago, so I don't remember every detail. But I do, still, remember some of the major points of the book. And I highly recommend it.
