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A new paperback edition of the first book by the bestselling author of A History of the World in 6 Glasses—the fascinating story of the telegraph, the world's first "Internet," which revolutionized the nineteenth century even more than the Internet has the twentieth and twenty first.
The Victorian Internet tells the colorful story of the telegraph's creation and remarkable impact, and of the visionaries, oddballs, and eccentrics who pioneered it, from the eighteenth-century French scientist Jean-Antoine Nollet to Samuel F. B. Morse and Thomas Edison. The electric telegraph nullified distance and shrank the world quicker and further than ever before or since, and its story mirrors and predicts that of the Internet in numerous ways.
Student20
Posted February 27, 2011
In my opinion, The Victorian Internet is a wonderful book that showcases the telegraph, and how it changed society. The author did a nice job at highlighting the evolution of the telegraph. He made the transformation of the telegraph very easy to understand for the reader. Standage, the author, wanted to show the significant similarities between the telegraph and the internet, and he did so beautifully. The book isn't a boring read, it is filled with facts and stories to keep the readers attention. The Victorian Internet shows how the telegraph not only had many business and political attributes, but it shows how the telegraph unified a world that was once very distant.
I would definitely recommend The Victorian Internet to anyone who wants to learn about the telegraph, or how technology had evolved over the years. The book is organized in a way that is easy to understand, and is very straight forward. Standage is very qualified to write this novel, and it shows in the amount of knowledge he puts into his work. This novel is packed full of facts and stories to keep the reader interested, and wanting to know more. It definitely was an easy read and very knowledgeable. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes technology, science, or history.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted February 1, 2004
When it comes to internet hype, this book nails it! Anyone who thinks the internet is revolutionary, and will change everything, needs to read this book, and get a true historical perspective on the technology. Afterwards you'll marvel not at how much has changed, but at how little has changed in the past 100+ years.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 31, 2001
Tom Standage gives you a wonderful historical view of the telegraph and its implications on our modern day technologies. By historical view, I most certainly do not mean to imply that this book is a history book. It's concept is based more from the view point of sociology and anthropology and how they were impacted by telegraph technology in the past century. Throughout the book Mr. Standage gives you parallels between the telegraph and the internet. The book starts out by telling you the beginnings of the telegraph, and how the 'new' telegraph was speculated and ridiculed just like the concept of the internet. The book also relates practical ways in which the telegraph was used in both Europe and North America. There is even a story about an online wedding using the telegraph that took place with the bride in Boston while the groom was in New York. If you like to learn about history, technology, and culture, without being put to sleep, I would recommend this easy read.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted April 10, 2001
Upon reading 'The Victorian Internet' I realized that it took a very long time to get the world to communicate. This book was very good of including all the historical details. If you like to learn something new from books, this is the book to read. It starts out by explaining how people used towers to communicate and ends with how people send e-mails every second. The style of writing is very different from history text books, in the sense that it doesn't put you to sleep. The author does a very good job of describing the hardships of communications in a very intelligent and interesting way. The chronological order that the book was written in helps out a lot. From the early days of networks, until the latest days of the internet, everything goes step by step. As the book progresses it becomes more clear how the telegraph is the same tool as the internet, only less advanced. Our society started out slowly but then the rate of development sky rocketed. Not only did the invention of the telegraph speed up communication, it also speed up the way of life. People became more and more busy. Things picked up the tempo. The book shows how quick thinking is a requiement in the telegraph world. One example that the author showed us was the stand off of English and French troops in Africa. The troops didn't know what the governments wanted them to do, fight or leave? The English had an advantage, they quickly went to their telegraph line and asked the government. The government told them to claim the land. The French, without orders, were forced to retreat until they got a word from their officials, but by that time the English already fortified the land. All in all, this book teaches a lot about the way we communicate with the rest of the world. Every page of the book is interesting and full of facts.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 4, 2013
In my opinion this book, The Victorian Internet, explains very well how the electric telegraph and telephone were created into an internet that was spread all across the U.S. and across the western nations. To start, a man named Claude Chappe created towers to expand communication. Then Samuel Morse created something called the telgraph. The electric telegrpah, after being stations being accepted by the government and public, created a way of communicating of people all over the country, and with an added fee, over the oceans. The telegraph is now known as the computer. Now the telephone was created to actually speak to other people. This is also still around today. This book was obviously made to show the perspectives of the inventors of todays technology.
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Posted December 17, 2012
I really enjoy the subject matter of this book. However, my experience is dampened by the fact that it was apparently not proof-read before it was released in the digital format. There are numerous spelling errors throughout and several numbers appear wrong due to the scanning process: i845 instead of 1845, for example. Many chapters begin with a small "Large" letter, etc. Since I paid for this book, I feel it should at least have the quality of a grade-school level proof-reading and checking. I hope this does not continue with other ebooks I get from Barnes & Noble.
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Posted February 24, 2012
I enojoyed this book very much and how Standage went all the way back to the sixteenth century and built on to the origins of the electric telegraph, along with important events that occured and the effects the telegraph had on those events. I was very interested in the start of the crime really having an effect on society. I never could grasp how someone could have a very useful piece of technology and commit a crime, but there are those who are greedy and/or desperate and have their various reasons. I was also interested in the establishment of the Atlantic Telegraph connecting the United States to Europe. Thinking about all of that hard work and time invested in just creating the wires alone would of had me exhausted, but thanks to William thomson, or Lord Kelvin, in fixing Whitmore's problem with the help of Henry Field. Altogether, I really was quite amazed with people's dedication to make the telegraph work, and how Standage explained all of this process in clear, concise, and flowing way that does not bore the reader. Even though I am more of a fantasy reader, this is a great historical book that is fascinating.
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Posted February 13, 2012
Tom Standage has done an excellent job of telling how the telegraph came into existence and how in revolutionized communication for the first time in millinium. Since the time of the Babalonians communication had to be hand delivered by messengers or couriers, later by mail services using shops and stagecoaches, often taking weeks or even months. Overnight, the telegraph made instant communication possible, albeit in code tapped out by skilled telegraph operators. Newspapers and givernments, particularly the military quickly saw its potential. Standage's book is an easy read which moves along at the pace of a good novel as he tells about rival inventors - bet you didn't know the first telegraph was invented by a Frenchman on the eve of the French Revolution in 1791 and Napoleon later allowedit to be used to transmit winning national lottery numbers - dating back a century before Victoria became queen of England! This is a very enjoyable and fascinating read for anyone who loves history.
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Posted February 21, 2011
My impression of The Victorian Internet was that is looks like an interesting book. After I read it, I liked how the author added information about how people got the idea of making a telegraph, how it changed communication, how it changed overall, and other such alluring aspects. The author's purpose was to tell the reader about how the telegraph was invented, and how it spread throughout the world. Tom Standage, the author, achieved his purpose. When he graduated he worked for very reputable newspapers and about the telegraph. Therefore, he is very capable of writing this book. Standage achieves his purpose of writing this book because he also does a ton of research in order to go in deep about the information. Thus, I think that Standage completes his purpose perfectly. I would only recommend this book if you want to know about the communication revolution and the people involved, and so forth. The book does not talk about "history" as in social, economic, political and environmental ideas. Consequently, like I have said, I would recommend this book if a person wants to know about the telegraph or is interested in the genre, science.
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Posted July 18, 2011
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Posted January 2, 2012
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Posted March 11, 2012
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Overview
A new paperback edition of the first book by the bestselling author of A History of the World in 6 Glasses—the fascinating story of the telegraph, the world's first "Internet," which revolutionized the nineteenth century even more than the Internet has the twentieth and twenty first.
The Victorian Internet tells the colorful story of the telegraph's creation and remarkable impact, and of the visionaries, oddballs, and eccentrics who pioneered it, from the eighteenth-century ...