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The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers Audiobook
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(4.50) - 2 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
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.
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"The name of the book first caught my attention and the summary sold it. My husband is a ham radio operator who loves Morse code contacts more than voice contacts. We listened together. It's a well done look at communications in the Victorian Age. Though somewhat familiar with the history of telegraphic development, it is just that, history. This presents the story along the lines of people who used the service and depended on it each day, and ow it made a difference in culture and society. It was a tremendous breakthrough in the ability of news to travel faster and further and is a great read."
— Bur (4 out of 5 stars)
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“Colorful, smooth, and wonderfully engaging. The Victorian Internet is a delightful book.”
— Smithsonian magazine -
Fans of Longitude will enjoy another story of the human side of dramatic technological developments, complete with personal rivalry, vicious competition, and agonizing failures.
— Therese Littleton, Amazon.com -
“I was simply fascinated by this book. It contains parallels between the reception of the telegraph and the Internet which I knew nothing about.”
— Vinton Cerf, co-inventor of the Internet -
“A fascinating walk through a pivotal period in history.”
— USA Today -
“The parallels between the now-ubiquitous Internet and the telegraph are amazing, offering insight into the ways new technologies can change the very fabric of society within a single generation…[For fans] of the human side of dramatic technological developments, complete with personal rivalry, vicious competition, and agonizing failures.”
— Amazon.com -
“Fascinating…[If] you’ve ever hankered for a perspective on media Net hype, this book is for you.”
— Wired -
“The skepticism and technical problems that dogged the development of the electric telegraph make for fascinating reading…Men and women fell in love, marriages were performed, criminals were apprehended, and all manner of scams were tried over the telegraph. This is an accessible and enjoyable little volume.”
— Kliatt -
“A lively, short history of the development and rapid growth a century and a half ago of the first electronic network, the telegraph.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“An engaging and readable account.”
— Library Journal -
“A fascinating overview of a once world-shaking invention and its impact on society.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
“Derek Perkins narrates this revised version with enthusiasm for the technology that shaped the 1800s as the parallels between the telegraph and the Internet are drawn. Standage packs in lots of factual information, blending it with anecdotes…Perkins delivers these stories in a voice that has sufficient gravity but that also leaves room for drama and amusement. Even listeners who think they’re not interested in the topic could find this audiobook surprisingly fascinating.”
— AudioFile
The Victorian Internet Listener Reviews
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Bruce Wilburn, 7/15/2018
About Tom Standage
Tom Standage is business editor at the Economist magazine and the author of A History of the World in 6 Glasses, The Turk, The Neptune File, and The Victorian Internet. He has also covered science and technology for a number of newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, and Wired. He holds a degree in engineering and computer science from Oxford University and lives in Greenwich, England, with his wife and daughter.
About Derek Perkins
Derek Perkins is a professional narrator and voice actor. He has earned numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, as well as numerous Society of Voice Arts nominations. AudioFile magazine named him a Best Voice consecutively in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Augmented by a knowledge of three foreign languages and a facility with accents, he has narrated numerous titles in a wide range of fiction and nonfiction genres.