How the Telegraph Changed the World

Download How the Telegraph Changed the World PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 078649445X
Total Pages : 221 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (864 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis How the Telegraph Changed the World by : William J. Phalen

Download or read book How the Telegraph Changed the World written by William J. Phalen and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-12-01 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Invented in the 1830's, the telegraph soon became indispensable. By 1851 there were more than 50 companies providing telegraphic service in the United States alone. The telegraph played a pivotal role in warfare beginning with the American Civil War, featured prominently in the creation of the first large American corporation, Western Union, and made possible long distance communication with the laying of the transatlantic cable. This book describes the global impact of the telegraph from its advent to its eventual eclipse by the telephone four decades later.

The Telegraph in America

Download The Telegraph in America PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 920 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Telegraph in America by : James D. Reid

Download or read book The Telegraph in America written by James D. Reid and published by . This book was released on 1879 with total page 920 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is an often cited panoramic history of the telegraph which discusses the principal telegraph firms and the key persons within them. Throughout his work, Reid stresses the business and economic aspects of marketing this remarkable scientific invention. The importance of The Telegraph in America as a classic reference in the field is under-scored by the fact that the author was active in telegraphy throughout the period he discusses. He thus had a personal knowledge of persons and events under examination.

The Telegraph in America, 1832–1920

Download The Telegraph in America, 1832–1920 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : JHU Press
ISBN 13 : 1421407973
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (214 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Telegraph in America, 1832–1920 by : David Hochfelder

Download or read book The Telegraph in America, 1832–1920 written by David Hochfelder and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A complete history of how the telegraph revolutionized technological practice and life in America. Telegraphy in the nineteenth century approximated the internet in our own day. Historian and electrical engineer David Hochfelder offers readers a comprehensive history of this groundbreaking technology, which employs breaks in an electrical current to send code along miles of wire. The Telegraph in America, 1832–1920 examines the correlation between technological innovation and social change and shows how this transformative relationship helps us to understand and perhaps define modernity. The telegraph revolutionized the spread of information—speeding personal messages, news of public events, and details of stock fluctuations. During the Civil War, telegraphed intelligence and high-level directives gave the Union war effort a critical advantage. Afterward, the telegraph helped build and break fortunes and, along with the railroad, altered the way Americans thought about time and space. With this book, Hochfelder supplies us with an introduction to the early stirrings of the information age.

Under the Wire

Download Under the Wire PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674041550
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Under the Wire by : David Paull NICKLES

Download or read book Under the Wire written by David Paull NICKLES and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did the telegraph, a new and revolutionary form of communication, affect diplomats, who tended to resist change? In a study based on impressive multinational research, David Paull Nickles examines the critical impact of the telegraph on the diplomacy of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Case studies in crisis diplomacy--the War of 1812, the Trent affair during the U.S. Civil War, and the famous 1917 Zimmermann telegram--introduce wide-ranging thematic discussions on the autonomy of diplomats; the effects of increased speed on decision making and public opinion; the neglected role of clerks in diplomacy; and the issues of expense, garbled text, espionage, and technophobia that initially made foreign ministries wary of telegraphy. Ultimately, the introduction of the telegraph contributed to the centralization of foreign ministries and the rising importance of signals intelligence. The faster pace of diplomatic disputes invited more emotional decisions by statesmen, while public opinion often exercised a belligerent influence on crises developing over a shorter time period. Under the Wire offers a fascinating new perspective on the culture of diplomacy and the social history of technology. Table of Contents: Introduction I. Control 1. The Anglo-American Crisis of 1812 2. Diplomatic Autonomy and Telecommunications II. Speed 3. The Trent Affair 4. Speed and Diplomacy 5. Diplomatic Time III. The Medium 6. The Zimmermann Telegram 7. Technical and Economic Factors Conclusion Abbreviations Notes Acknowledgments Index Reviews of this book: David Paull Nickles has plumbed the archives of four countries to determine just how transformative [the invention of the telegraph] really was. Under the Wire is a subtle and impressive examination of history. --Christian D. Brose, Wall Street Journal In this study of the impact of telegraphy on the management of international relations, the reader is rewarded time and again by finding original observations regarding familiar events. This is a book that can have a shaping effect not only on the field of international relations but on many others, since it compels one to think hard about how changes in technology affect behavior and thought among groups with deeply rooted traditions and beliefs. --Ernest R. May, Harvard University

Connecting the Nineteenth-Century World

Download Connecting the Nineteenth-Century World PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107025281
Total Pages : 357 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (7 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Connecting the Nineteenth-Century World by : Roland Wenzlhuemer

Download or read book Connecting the Nineteenth-Century World written by Roland Wenzlhuemer and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revealing insight into the links between globalization and the technological advances in communication brought about by the telegraph network.

The Multiple Telegraph

Download The Multiple Telegraph PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 34 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (89 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Multiple Telegraph by : Alexander Graham Bell

Download or read book The Multiple Telegraph written by Alexander Graham Bell and published by . This book was released on 1876 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

What Hath God Wrought

Download What Hath God Wrought PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199726574
Total Pages : 928 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (997 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis What Hath God Wrought by : Daniel Walker Howe

Download or read book What Hath God Wrought written by Daniel Walker Howe and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-10-29 with total page 928 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford History of the United States is by far the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. In this Pulitzer prize-winning, critically acclaimed addition to the series, historian Daniel Walker Howe illuminates the period from the battle of New Orleans to the end of the Mexican-American War, an era when the United States expanded to the Pacific and won control over the richest part of the North American continent. A panoramic narrative, What Hath God Wrought portrays revolutionary improvements in transportation and communications that accelerated the extension of the American empire. Railroads, canals, newspapers, and the telegraph dramatically lowered travel times and spurred the spread of information. These innovations prompted the emergence of mass political parties and stimulated America's economic development from an overwhelmingly rural country to a diversified economy in which commerce and industry took their place alongside agriculture. In his story, the author weaves together political and military events with social, economic, and cultural history. Howe examines the rise of Andrew Jackson and his Democratic party, but contends that John Quincy Adams and other Whigs--advocates of public education and economic integration, defenders of the rights of Indians, women, and African-Americans--were the true prophets of America's future. In addition, Howe reveals the power of religion to shape many aspects of American life during this period, including slavery and antislavery, women's rights and other reform movements, politics, education, and literature. Howe's story of American expansion culminates in the bitterly controversial but brilliantly executed war waged against Mexico to gain California and Texas for the United States. Winner of the New-York Historical Society American History Book Prize Finalist, 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction The Oxford History of the United States The Oxford History of the United States is the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, a New York Times bestseller, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. The Atlantic Monthly has praised it as "the most distinguished series in American historical scholarship," a series that "synthesizes a generation's worth of historical inquiry and knowledge into one literally state-of-the-art book." Conceived under the general editorship of C. Vann Woodward and Richard Hofstadter, and now under the editorship of David M. Kennedy, this renowned series blends social, political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, and military history into coherent and vividly written narrative.

Revolutions in Communication

Download Revolutions in Communication PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 144118550X
Total Pages : 385 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (411 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Revolutions in Communication by : Bill Kovarik

Download or read book Revolutions in Communication written by Bill Kovarik and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-08-27 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rise of the Information Age, the fall of the traditional media, and the bewildering explosion of personal information services are all connected to the historical chain of communications' revolutions. We need to understand these revolutions because they influence our present and future as much as any other trend in history. And we need to understand them not simply on a national basis - an unstable foundation for history in any event - but rather as part of the emergent global communications network. Unlike most of the current texts in the field, Revolutions in Communication is an up-to-date resource, expanding upon contemporary scholarship. It provides students and teachers with detailed sidebars about key figures, technical innovations, global trends, and social movements, as well as supplemental reading materials, and a fully supportive companion website. Revolutions in Communication is an authoritative introduction to the history of all branches of media.

Media,Technology and Society

Download Media,Technology and Society PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134766335
Total Pages : 392 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (347 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Media,Technology and Society by : Brian Winston

Download or read book Media,Technology and Society written by Brian Winston and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-09-11 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Challenging the popular myth of a present-day 'information revolution', Media Technology and Society is essential reading for anyone interested in the social impact of technological change. Winston argues that the development of new media forms, from the telegraph and the telephone to computers, satellite and virtual reality, is the product of a constant play-off between social necessity and suppression: the unwritten law by which new technologies are introduced into society only insofar as their disruptive potential is limited.

Lightning Man

Download Lightning Man PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Knopf
ISBN 13 : 0307434370
Total Pages : 512 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (74 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Lightning Man by : Kenneth Silverman

Download or read book Lightning Man written by Kenneth Silverman and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2010-04-07 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this brilliantly conceived and written biography, Pulitzer Prize–winning Kenneth Silverman gives us the long and amazing life of the man eulogized by the New York Herald in 1872 as “perhaps the most illustrious American of his age.” Silverman presents Samuel Morse in all his complexity. There is the gifted and prolific painter (more than three hundred portraits and larger historical canvases) and pioneer photographer, who gave the first lectures on art in America, became the first Professor of Fine Arts at an American college (New York University), and founded the National Academy of Design. There is the republican idealist, prominent in antebellum politics, who ran for Congress and for mayor of New York. But most important, there is the inventor of the American electromagnetic telegraph, which earned Morse the name Lightning Man and brought him the fame he sought. In these pages, we witness the evolution of the great invention from its inception as an idea to its introduction to the world—an event that astonished Morse’s contemporaries and was considered the supreme expression of the country’s inventive genius. We see how it transformed commerce, journalism, transportation, military affairs, diplomacy, and the very shape of daily life, ushering in the modern era of communication. But we discover as well that Morse viewed his existence as accursed rather than illustrious, his every achievement seeming to end in loss and defeat: his most ambitious canvases went unsold; his beloved republic imploded into civil war, making it unlivable for him; and the commercial success of the telegraph engulfed him in lawsuits challenging the originality and ownership of his invention. Lightning Man is the first biography of Samuel F. B. Morse in sixty years. It is a revelation of the life of a fascinating and profoundly troubled American genius.

Network Nation

Download Network Nation PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674088131
Total Pages : 529 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Network Nation by : Richard R. John

Download or read book Network Nation written by Richard R. John and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-10-05 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The telegraph and the telephone were the first electrical communications networks to become hallmarks of modernity. Yet they were not initially expected to achieve universal accessibility. In this pioneering history of their evolution, Richard R. John demonstrates how access to these networks was determined not only by technological imperatives and economic incentives but also by political decision making at the federal, state, and municipal levels. In the decades between the Civil War and the First World War, Western Union and the Bell System emerged as the dominant providers for the telegraph and telephone. Both operated networks that were products not only of technology and economics but also of a distinctive political economy. Western Union arose in an antimonopolistic political economy that glorified equal rights and vilified special privilege. The Bell System flourished in a progressive political economy that idealized public utility and disparaged unnecessary waste. The popularization of the telegraph and the telephone was opposed by business lobbies that were intent on perpetuating specialty services. In fact, it wasnÕt until 1900 that the civic ideal of mass access trumped the elitist ideal of exclusivity in shaping the commercialization of the telephone. The telegraph did not become widely accessible until 1910, sixty-five years after the first fee-for-service telegraph line opened in 1845. Network Nation places the history of telecommunications within the broader context of American politics, business, and discourse. This engrossing and provocative book persuades us of the critical role of political economy in the development of new technologies and their implementation.

The Printing Press as an Agent of Change

Download The Printing Press as an Agent of Change PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780521299558
Total Pages : 814 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (995 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Printing Press as an Agent of Change by : Elizabeth L. Eisenstein

Download or read book The Printing Press as an Agent of Change written by Elizabeth L. Eisenstein and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1980-09-30 with total page 814 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A full-scale historical treatment of the advent of printing and its importance as an agent of change, first published in 1980.

Wired into Nature

Download Wired into Nature PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 9780252041778
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (417 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Wired into Nature by : James Schwoch

Download or read book Wired into Nature written by James Schwoch and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2018-03-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The completion of the Transcontinental Telegraph in 1861 completed telegraphy's mile-by-mile trek across the West. In addition to linking the coasts, the telegraph represented an extraordinary American effort in many fields of endeavor to know, act upon, and control a continent. Merging new research with bold interpretation, James Schwoch details the unexplored dimensions of the frontier telegraph and its impact. The westward spread of telegraphy entailed encounters with environments that challenged Americans to acquire knowledge of natural history, climate, and a host of other fields. Telegraph codes and ciphers, meanwhile, became important political, military, and economic secrets. Schwoch shows how the government's use of commercial networks drove a relationship between the two sectors that served increasingly expansionist aims. He also reveals the telegraph's role in securing high ground and encouraging surveillance. Both became vital aspects of the American effort to contain, and conquer, the West's indigenous peoples—and part of a historical arc of concerns about privacy, data gathering, and surveillance that remains pertinent today. Entertaining and enlightening, Wired into Nature explores an unknown history of the West.

The Telegraph

Download The Telegraph PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 9780786418084
Total Pages : 202 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (18 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Telegraph by : Lewis Coe

Download or read book The Telegraph written by Lewis Coe and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2003-11-26 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Samuel F.B. Morse's invention of the telegraph marked a new era in communication. For the first time, people were able to communicate quickly from great distances. The genesis of Morse's invention is covered in detail, starting in 1832, along with the establishment of the first transcontinental telegraph line in the United States and the dramatic effect the device had on the Civil War. The Morse telegraph that served the world for over 100 years is explained in clear terms. Also examined are recent advances in telegraph technology and its continued impact on communication.

Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails

Download Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0061749834
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (617 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails by : Tom Wheeler

Download or read book Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails written by Tom Wheeler and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Civil War was the first "modern war." Because of the rapid changes in American society, Abraham Lincoln became president of a divided United States during a period of technological and social revolution. Among the many modern marvels that gave the North an advantage was the telegraph, which Lincoln used to stay connected to the forces in the field in almost real time. No leader in history had ever possessed such a powerful tool to gain control over a fractious situation. An eager student of technology, Lincoln (the only president to hold a patent) had to learn to use the power of electronic messages. Without precedent to guide him, Lincoln began by reading the telegraph traffic among his generals. Then he used the telegraph to supplement his preferred form of communication—meetings and letters. He did not replace those face-to-face interactions. Through this experience, Lincoln crafted the best way to guide, reprimand, praise, reward, and encourage his commanders in the field. Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails tells a big story within a small compass. By paying close attention to Lincoln's "lightning messages," we see a great leader adapt to a new medium. No reader of this work of history will be able to miss the contemporary parallels. Watching Lincoln carefully word his messages—and follow up on those words with the right actions—offers a striking example for those who spend their days tapping out notes on computers and BlackBerrys. An elegant work of history, Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails is an instructive example of timeless leadership lessons.

Dot-Dash to Dot.Com

Download Dot-Dash to Dot.Com PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1441967605
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (419 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Dot-Dash to Dot.Com by : Andrew Wheen

Download or read book Dot-Dash to Dot.Com written by Andrew Wheen and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-11-04 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Telecommunications is a major global industry, and this unique book chronicles the development of this complex technology from the electric telegraph to the Internet in a simple, accessible, and entertaining way. The book opens with the early years of the electric telegraph. The reader will learn how the Morse telegraph evolved into an international network that spanned the globe, starting with the development of international undersea cables, and the heroic attempts to lay a trans-Atlantic cable. The book describes the events that led to the invention of the telephone, and the subsequent disputes over who had really invented it. It takes a look at some of the most important applications that have appeared on the Internet, the mobile revolution, and ends with a discussion of future key developments in the telecommunications industry.

Spreading the News

Download Spreading the News PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674039149
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Spreading the News by : Richard R. JOHN

Download or read book Spreading the News written by Richard R. JOHN and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the seven decades from its establishment in 1775 to the commercialization of the electric telegraph in 1844, the American postal system spurred a communications revolution no less far-reaching than the subsequent revolutions associated with the telegraph, telephone, and computer. This book tells the story of that revolution and the challenge it posed for American business, politics, and cultural life. During the early republic, the postal system was widely hailed as one of the most important institutions of the day. No other institution had the capacity to transmit such a large volume of information on a regular basis over such an enormous geographical expanse. The stagecoaches and postriders who conveyed the mail were virtually synonymous with speed. In the United States, the unimpeded transmission of information has long been hailed as a positive good. In few other countries has informational mobility been such a cherished ideal. Richard John shows how postal policy can help explain this state of affairs. He discusses its influence on the development of such information-intensive institutions as the national market, the voluntary association, and the mass party. He traces its consequences for ordinary Americans, including women, blacks, and the poor. In a broader sense, he shows how the postal system worked to create a national society out of a loose union of confederated states. This exploration of the role of the postal system in American public life provides a fresh perspective not only on an important but neglected chapter in American history, but also on the origins of some of the most distinctive features of American life today. Table of Contents: Preface Acknowledgments The Postal System as an Agent of Change The Communications Revolution Completing the Network The Imagined Community The Invasion of the Sacred The Wellspring of Democracy The Interdiction of Dissent Conclusion Abbreviations Notes Sources Index Reviews of this book: "[A] splendid new book...that gives the lie to any notion that 'government' and 'administration' were 'absent' in early America." DD--Theda Skocpol, Social Science History "This well-researched and elegantly written book will become a model for historians attempting to link public policy to cultural and political change...[It] will engage not only historians of the early republic, but all scholars interested in the relationship between state and society." DD--John Majewski, Journal of Economic History "The strength of the book is...the author's ability to untangle the thousands of social, political, economic, and cultural threads of the postal fabric and to rearrange them into a clear and compelling social history." DD--Roy Alden Atwood, Journal of American History "Richard R. John provides an insightful cultural history of the often-overlooked American postal system, concentrating on its preeminent status for long-distance communication between its birth in 1775 and the commercialization of the electric telegraph in 1844...John effectively draws upon government documents, newspapers, travelogues, and contemporary social and political histories to argue that the postal system causes and mirrors dramatic changes in American public life during this period...John focuses his study on the communication revolution of the past, yet his meticulous analysis of the complex motives forming the postal institution and its policies relate to such current controversies as those that surround the transmission of information in cyberspace. These contemporary disputes highlight the power of the government in shaping the communication of the people. John privileges the postal institution as the reigning communication system, yet he links it with the developing ideology of the nation, and the scope of his study ensures its value--in the disciplines of communication studies, literature, history, and political science, among others--as a history of the past and present." DD--Sarah R. Marino, Canadian Review of American Studies "Spreading the News exemplifies the kind of sophisticated and nuanced research that US postal history has long needed. Richard R. John breaks from the internalist, antiquarian tradition characteristic of so many post office histories to place the postal system at the centre of American national development." DD--Richard B. Kielbowicz, Business History "[John] presents a thoroughly researched and well-written book...[which will give] insight into the history of the post office and its impact on American life." DD--Library Journal "It is surely true that in Richard John the post has had the good fortune to have found its proper historian, one capable of appreciating the complex design and social importance of the means a people use to distribute information. He has also accomplished the impressive feat of gathering together the pieces of a postal history present elsewhere as so many tiny fragments. John has drawn into a coherent design the stories of postal patronage, the decisions about postal privacy, the incidents along post roads used by others as illustrative anecdotes. John's work has inspired in him a deep appreciation for the accomplishments of the post." DD--Ann Fabian, The Yale Review "John's book explains how the letters and newspapers sent through the post were really the glue that held the early 13 states together and that embraced additional states as the nation expanded westward...It is a splendid attempt to show the importance of mail service in the years before the telegraph or the telephone made at least brief news transmission possible. The postal system of the 19th century really was a factor, perhaps the major factor, in making the United States one nation." DD--Richard B. Graham, Linn's Stamp News "This book traces the central role of the postal system in [its] communications revolution and its contribution to American public life. The author shows how the postal system influenced the establishment of a national society out of a loose union of confederated states. Richard John throws light onto a chapter in American history that is often neglected but sets up the origins of some of the most distinctive features of American life today...The book is a comprehensive study on an important American institution during a critical epoch in its history." DD--Monika Plum, Prometheus [UK] "John has produced an original, well-documented, and thoughtful study that offers alternative and enticing interpretations of Jacksonian policies and public institutions." DD--Choice