Customer Reviews

THE STORY OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

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George Oslin's "History of Telecommunications," the self-described fruit of a lifetime of research (Mr. Oslin died in 1998 at the age of 99), is thorough without being turgid, luidly written, and comprehensive in discussing exhaustively every telecom advance including computers, and even computer networks, even though its account ends in 1992. And even though its illustrations of modern computer technology seem dated to us, since they date from the early 90s, he still is able provide a thorough account of the establishent of computer networks like Compuserve in business. (Nothing on the Arpanet though as the progenitor of the Internet, though, but that would be too much to expect in 1990.)

One of this many fascinations of this book is its long historical view, going back to ancient historical attempts to "Rebel Against Time and Space," and Mr. Oslin's obvious nostalgia for the heyday of his employer, Western Union, and the ATT monopoly.

Mr. Oslin is not a techie, just a lay historian with a mind-boggling memory for telecom development. His book is a great monument to his memory and a one-volume classic whose reputation is bound to spread, even though it is not from a mainstream publishing house.

This is hands down the best account of the history of the telegraph and early telecom indsustry ever written. Entertaining, extremely well documented.