IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Spring 2013 - 15

JOY RANKIN

Network Nation: Inventing
American Telecommunications
By Richard R. John. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. 520 pp.

H

istories of communication that include the
are two individuals among many. rather than merely
telephone often focus on inventor Alexanfocusing on inventor and invention, John examines
der Graham Bell or, more likely, on the
how the telegraph and the telephone systems develinterwoven accomplishments of Amerioped in the United States between 1840 and 1920,
can Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), the Bell System,
with an emphasis on political economy. Indeed, John
and Bell Labs. The era from Bell's development of the
argues that the American system of government - at
telephone in 1876 to AT&T's transcontinental telephone
the federal, state and municipal level - directly and
line in 1915 is usually presented as a
crucially shaped the telegraph and teleThe American
series of technical achievements, and the
phone networks and their operations.
system of
popularization of the telephone is taken
John, a historian at the Columbia
as a foregone conclusion.
University School of Journalism, develgovernment
Similarly, if the telegraph is addressed
ops his theme through eleven chapters,
directly and
at all in histories of business, commuorganized chronologically. He examcrucially shaped
nication, or technology, it is typically
ines the telegraph largely through the
the telegraph
presented in two snapshots: first, as the
lens of Western Union, one of the largbrainchild of Samuel Morse, second, as
est corporations in the United States
and telephone
telegraph lines crisscrossing the nation
circa 1870, a fact that bears emphasis
networks and
alongside busy railroad tracks. The years
here. The later chapters on the telephone
their operations.
and developments between those two
address the interconnected American
moments are omitted. perhaps Thomas
Bell, American Telephone & Telegraph,
Edison, yet another inventor in this technology, is
and Bell System companies. The author deploys these
mentioned for developing the telegraph quadruplex,
companies' extensive business archives, in addition
the profits from which he invested in his Menlo park
to government publications and documents, personal
research laboratory. More recently, in works such as
correspondence, magazines, newspapers, and pamTom Standage's The Victorian Internet, the telegraph
phlets, to build a thoughtful and thorough argument.
has enjoyed newfound popularity as a harbinger of our
For John, the fortunes of Western Union and AT&T
contemporary wired world.
were very much tied to their employees. Network
In Network Nation: Inventing American TelecomNation is populated and enlivened by these individumunications, richard r. John resists this technoals, and by the politicians and protesters who challogical determinism. Although Bell and Morse both
lenged the two telecommunications companies.
appear in his history of electrical communication, they
Network Nation opens with a short four-page
introduction, and the first chapter acts as an extended
introduction, but an outstanding summary of the book
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2013.2247729
Date of publication: 14 March 2013
appears at the end as the "Chronology of American
Joy Rankin is a doctoral student in the History Department at Yale University in the Program in the History of Science
and Medicine. Her dissertation focuses on the transformation of computers from military, scientific, and industrial tools
to personal tools by examining interactive computing projects that operated on time-sharing systems during the 1960s
and 1970s. Email: joy.rankin@yale.edu.
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

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