Wired into Nature

The Telegraph and the North American Frontier

James Schwoch (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

288 Seiten

2018
University of Illinois Press (Verlag)
978-0-252-08340-2 (ISBN)

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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.

James Schwoch is a professor of communication studies at Northwestern University. He is the author of The American Radio Industry and Its Latin American Activities, 1900-1939 and Global TV: New Media and the Cold War, 1946–69.

CoverTitleCopyrightContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Landscapes, Ecosystems, and Prevailing Westerlies: The Great Plains2. Storms Moving in a Ring of Fire: The Civil War3. Changes in the Forecast: Data Gathering, Mapping, and Weather Predictions4. Dreams of a Boreal Empire, Nightmares of a Polar Vortex: The Arctic5. Hot Winds on a Sun-Baked Desert: The SouthwestConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

Erscheinungsdatum	26.03.2018
Reihe/Serie	The History of Media and Communication
Zusatzinfo	32 black & white photographs, 5 maps
Verlagsort	Baltimore
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	426 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Journalistik
	Wirtschaft
ISBN-10	0-252-08340-7 / 0252083407
ISBN-13	978-0-252-08340-2 / 9780252083402
Zustand	Neuware