The Telegraph in America, 1832-1920

摘要

David Hochfelder, who is an assistant professor at the University at Albany, SUNY, completed his dissertation on telegraph history in 1999, and evidently his passion never waned. Judging from the endnotes, he appears to have read every significant historical work on the technology, and the bibliographic essay is a veritable roadmap for future 'Scholars and graduate students. Drawing on this prior scholarship and a significant amount of archival research, Hochfelder reveals how the telegraph interacted with different aspects of American society. Contrary to the time frame indicated in the title, the book glosses over the first thirty years of the telegraph and begins in earnest with the Civil War. The narrative likewise does not conclude in the 1920s, as we also learn about the slow decline of telegraphy over the course of the twentieth century.