James Schwoch. Wired into Nature: The Telegraph and the North American Frontier.

Abstract

The history of the telegraph and, by extension, of computer networks and the internet has enjoyed a boom over the past decade. Increasingly, historians have been moving away from discussing the evolution of these technologies and more toward their business ramifications or how they were used. James Schwoch’s new book Wired into Nature: The Telegraph and the North American Frontier advances the study of how the telegraph was used in the nineteenth century by focusing more on the military and government’s use of telegraphy in the American West, leaving to others discussions about Western Union and other business themes. He sheds much new light on the use of telegraphy by the U.S. Army to control, even fight, Indians. He adds to our understanding of the challenges of stringing wire across mountains, deserts, and Alaska. His research expands our understanding of how the United States became a wired-up nation by the end of the 1800s.