The Telegraph in America, 1832-1920

摘要

The telegraph revolutionized life in the United States during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and one cannot study this technology without considering its concomitant social impact. So argues historian of technology and capitalism David Hochfelder in The Telegraph in America, 1832-1920. Hochfelder traces how these revolutionary effects propagated across American society from the Civil War through the Progressive Era. Each of his thematic chapters focuses on a field in which the impact of the telegraph was felt keenly: its use as a vital communication tool during the war, its central role as a source of political-economic controversy due to Western Union's (WU) near monopoly over domestic telegraph services in the United States in the postwar era, its influence on the nature of journalism and written language, and finally its place in the development and expansion of American finance capitalism. While Hochfelder's broader claim that the telegraph represented a break from prior communication technologies, and had a revolutionary impact on American society, seems overstated, his book reminds historians of business and economic institutions that technology matters. This claim is particularly true of technologies that are disruptive and challenge the status quo at a fundamental level.