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108 reviews for:
The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-Line Pioneers
Tom Standage
3.85 AVERAGE
108 reviews for:
The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-Line Pioneers
Tom Standage
3.85 AVERAGE
informative
I truly enjoyed this history. Concise while informative it paints an easily digested picture of the progression of technology from the optical telegraph to the telephone giving you great bits of trivia knowledge along the way.
informative
slow-paced
An interesting informative read it gets both into the technical and social impact of the teleagraph as well as the many parallels to the internet which I never realized until listening to this book
This was a really good light introduction to the Telegraph, I read it in various cafes while on holiday and finished it up as bedtime reading. Not really a researcher's text but a good way to get an overview and see some of the social implications. Also some of the absurdities of reality :D
I was expecting so much more from this. When it was described to me it sounded a lot more interesting. Anyway, I am glad I read it. I feel more educated and dare I say smart?
really solid and thought-provoking review of how the technology of communication is so far reaching and advanced so quickly. A lot of really interesting, if fleeting, technologies are discussed such as line-of-sight (optical) telegraphs and encoded electrical telegraphs.
This would be a really good article in The Atlantic.
The thesis is that the telegraph changed the world much more than the Internet. Reducing international communication times from weeks or months to minutes is a paradigm shift that's hard to comprehend.
The history of the telegraph was mildly interesting. The hook seen in the title of a comparison to the Internet and online culture (in-jokes, online dating) gets a brief treatment and is less interesting than you'd expect.
You can read https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraphy#Social_implications instead and save a few hours.
2.5 stars
The thesis is that the telegraph changed the world much more than the Internet. Reducing international communication times from weeks or months to minutes is a paradigm shift that's hard to comprehend.
The history of the telegraph was mildly interesting. The hook seen in the title of a comparison to the Internet and online culture (in-jokes, online dating) gets a brief treatment and is less interesting than you'd expect.
You can read https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraphy#Social_implications instead and save a few hours.
2.5 stars
Helpful social history of how people adapted to instantaneous communication, and how it actually happened (Samuel Morse didn't just wake up one morning and develop the telegraph...) Also shows where the "modern sensibility" comes from -- we have more in common with the world of the late nineteenth century than is often appreciated.
Surprisingly good!
Very interesting. Many a book on a more interesting sounding subject is far more boring and dry than this.
Very interesting. Many a book on a more interesting sounding subject is far more boring and dry than this.
informative
medium-paced