A Nation Transformed by Information: How Information Has Shaped the United States from Colonial Times to the Present (Hardcover)

~ Alfred D. Chandler Jr. (Editor), James W. Cortada (Editor) "I begin this introduction by explaining the book's title..." (more)
Key Phrases: tabulating technology, postal administrators, railway mail service, United States, Western Union, World War (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Does the Information Age predate computers? Does it, in fact, predate the Industrial Age? Though this thesis isn't explicitly examined in A Nation Transformed by Information: How Information Has Shaped the United States from Colonial Times to the Present, the reader can't help but think about it throughout. Editors Alfred D. Chandler Jr. and James W. Cortada assembled a healthy mix of historians and management consultants to write the history of information services in America, and the very mild pro-business bias is more than balanced by the deeper insight into the companies and corporations that did much to spur technological change.

Fascinating nuggets of post-McLuhan media history lie within this sober analysis; it's startling to read of the antebellum U.S. Post Office refusing to deliver abolitionist materials to slave states, for example. These help to contextualize the information architecture we take for granted, as well as the innovations made possible by this architecture--imagine 50-story buildings without telephones. Though the editors profess no gift of prophecy for themselves or their authors, A Nation Transformed by Information will still give canny readers something to think about as they make their way through the Information Age. --Rob Lightner

Review

"A grand story, stretching from colonial newspapers to the Internet. Information has been a driving force in American for 300 years, and anyone who wants to understand its role today would be well advised to read this book."--Hal Varian, University of California at Berkeley
"The chapters of this wonderful book take us through two centuries of technological, economic, and business history. The description and analysis of the present context and how it is likely to evolve is as rich as the historical analysis of the factors molding the use of information in the American economy in earlier years. What a treat!"--Richard R. Nelson, Columbia University
"This book provides a marvelous demonstration that the information didn't spring full blown from the creators of the world wide web, but has roots that reach back over three hundred years. The creation, propagation, and dissemenation of information has been a central characteristic of American life since the establishment of printing presses in multiple centers of the colonial economy. Through a well linked set of essays going forward through technological systems including the post office, the telegraph, the telephone, accounting and filing, radio, motion pictures, to computers and the internet, both the continuities and the discontinuities are made apparent. The several authors engage not only their readers, but each other as well. A Nation Transformed by Information is important reading not only for historians, but for anyone who wants to understand the age of dot.com."--Sheldon Hochheiser, Corporate Historian, AT&T
"This collection represents a timely and accomplished effort to provide invaluable historical perspectives on the long road to America's contemporary, information-rich society. Readers will rapidly appreciate that the Information Age, for all its novelty, has emerged from durable private- and public-sector commitments to broadening and speeding this nation's information flows."--Philip Scranton, Rutgers University and Hagley Museum and Library

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 404 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; illustrated edition edition (August 10, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195127013
• ISBN-13: 978-0195127010
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,398,861 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exciting history of information media., September 21, 2000

By	Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This book is a collection of essays on the movement of information, and how it has transformed the United States from its colonial beginnings to today. At the very beginning, the founders of the country subsidized the transportation of newspapers through the postal system; this allowed the free flow of information between cities and states, across the entire continent. As technology increased, it inevitably speeded and expanded the amount of information flowing throughout the country--from the railroad, through the telegraph, telephone, radio, motion pictures, television, and on into computers.

This book is an exciting history of information media. Though written by no less than seven contributors, it pulls together into seamless whole, almost as if written by one author. The depth of information is breathtaking, and the conclusions reached are fascinating. Indeed, I think that they admirably proved their contention that there was continuity in the development of information media, and I myself repeatedly saw history repeat itself through their narrative, right up to today.

This is a fascinating book, and one that I recommend without reservation.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good subject, but poor editing, June 8, 2001

By	W. Mckinnon (Rancho Cordova, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book because my work is in information reporting and I thought it would provide an interesting perspective. It did succeed at that. Because I come from a technical background, I had a little trouble getting started with the book, until I released it was written from a sociology background. Once I got past that I enjoyed the book except for the ...

extremely poor editing. There were numerous grammatical and sentence structure errors, contradicting statements misspellings and general redundancy that really detracted from the information being presented.

16 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Poor editing, October 29, 2000

By	Richard J. Cullen "Rich Cullen" (Naperville, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book was interesting, but the editing was so poor that I started to mistrust what I was reading. For instance the famous first telegraph message "What hath God wrought" was printed as "What God hath wrought." The book is full of typos.