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The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers Paperback – February 25, 2014

by Tom Standage (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 449 ratings
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A new paperback edition of the book the Wall Street Journal dubbed “a Dot-Com cult classic,” by the bestselling author of A History of the World in 6 Glasses-the fascinating story of the telegraph, the world's first “Internet.”

The Victorian Internet tells the colorful story of the telegraph's creation and remarkable impact, and of the visionaries, oddballs, and eccentrics who pioneered it, from the eighteenth-century French scientist Jean-Antoine Nollet to Samuel F. B. Morse and Thomas Edison. The electric telegraph nullified distance and shrank the world quicker and further than ever before or since, and its story mirrors and predicts that of the Internet in numerous ways.

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  1. Print length
    256 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Bloomsbury USA
  4. Publication date
    February 25, 2014
  5. Dimensions
    5.1 x 1 x 7.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    162040592X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1620405925
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tom Standage is deputy editor of the Economist and the author of six previous history books, including Writing on the Wall, the New York Times bestsellers A History of the World in 6 Glasses and An Edible History of Humanity, and The Victorian Internet, a history of the telegraph. His writing has also appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, Wired, and other publications. Standage holds a degree in engineering and computer science from Oxford University. He lives in London. @TomStandage

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury USA; Second Edition, Revised (February 25, 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 162040592X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1620405925
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.1 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.1 x 1 x 7.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 449 ratings

About the author

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Tom Standage

Tom Standage

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Tom Standage is deputy editor of The Economist, overseeing its strategy and output on digital platforms, including the web, apps, audio, video and social media. He joined The Economist in 1998 and previously served as Digital Editor, Business Affairs Editor, Business Editor, Technology Editor and Science Correspondent. He is a regular radio commentator and keynote speaker on technology trends, and takes a particular interest in the social and cultural impact of technology. Tom is also the author of six history books, including “Writing on the Wall: Social Media—The First 2,000 Years”; the New York Times bestsellers “A History of the World in Six Glasses” (2005) and “An Edible History of Humanity” (2009); and “The Victorian Internet” (1998), a history of the telegraph. His writing has appeared in other publications including the New York Times, the Guardian and Wired. He holds a degree in engineering and computer science from Oxford University, and is the least musical member of a musical family. He is married and lives in London with his wife and children.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
449 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book fascinating, easy to read, and informative. They also appreciate the illustrations and pacing. Readers say the book provides a fascinating look at modern communication.

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ReadabilityIllustrationsContentPacingPerspectiveHistory
73 customers mention "Readability"73 positive0 negative

Customers find the book fascinating, with interesting anecdotes and awesome history. They also say it's well-researched, fast-moving, and easy to read.

"...There are also interesting tidbits along the way: we get facts about Samuel Morse and Thomas Edison that most history books ignore...." Read more

"Interesting tale, well-written, but I was hoping for more science than anecdote...." Read more

"...This short book is a fun and fascinating read (which I often found hard to put down), showing that the telegraph and today's Internet have more in..." Read more

"Very easy and interesting read." Read more

27 customers mention "Illustrations"22 positive5 negative

Customers find the illustrations in the book very readable and easy to read. They also say the author writes in a clear, easy voice that tells a fascinating history.

"...All of it combines in a way that is easy to read, decently-paced, and fun to think about and discuss with others...." Read more

"Interesting tale, well-written, but I was hoping for more science than anecdote...." Read more

"...The books moderate length was written in a well balanced manner. It is quite intertaining and full of interesting storries and facts...." Read more

"Readable, well-written, accurate. Comparison of the telegraph to the internet is interesting, though at times overdone, I think...." Read more

18 customers mention "Content"14 positive4 negative

Customers find the book very informative, entertaining, and full of interesting stories and facts. They also appreciate the great excerpts from newspapers of the time. Overall, readers describe it as an excellent source detailing the wide variety of uses.

"...It is quite intertaining and full of interesting storries and facts.I give Tom Standage a thumbs up for this writing...." Read more

"...All in all, an interesting, informative and amusing read." Read more

"...Lots of great bits, like how Alexander Graham Bell was trying to invent a better telegraph when he realized he could an actual send voice instead of..." Read more

"Awesome history with great excerpts from newspapers of the time. It leaves you wanting a book about the telephone." Read more

8 customers mention "Pacing"8 positive0 negative

Customers find the pacing of the book decent, easy to read, and fun to think about. They also say it's a fast read and shipped fast.

"...All of it combines in a way that is easy to read, decently-paced, and fun to think about and discuss with others...." Read more

"Well researched and fast moving, this decidedly non-technical read is a lo of fun...." Read more

"...It's a quick, easy read. The illustrations are awful and I wonder why they're included.But I enjoyed the book...." Read more

"...These include light speed delivery of news and information, as well as businesses springing up using this new tech...." Read more

7 customers mention "Perspective"7 positive0 negative

Customers find the perspective fascinating and say it provides a fascinating look at modern communication.

"...I give this book 5 stars for being clever with presentation and for keeping the various threads together without seeming fragmented...." Read more

"...Not a particularly in-depth treatment of the subject, but a good overall view...." Read more

"...in old western movies is only partly accurate; this book paints a more complete picture...." Read more

"...The book is very informative, and paints the Victorian era in a new light. The 19th century was cyberpunk before anyone knew what that was." Read more

6 customers mention "History"6 positive0 negative

Customers find the book entertaining and interesting, detailing the history of the telegraph and early communication channels.

"A quick and easy history of the telegraph and its effects on society...." Read more

"A fun history of telecommunications relying heavily in fun anecdotes. Each inventions has it's base, creator, investors, entrepreneurs, and abusers...." Read more

"This book was an easy and fairly entertaining read, detailing the history of the telegraph...." Read more

"Interesting history about the telegraph and how it has shaped our world today." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

Trenton Bennett
5.0 out of 5 stars History Repeats Itself
Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2003
Verified Purchase
Tom Standage is onto something. It seems that everything we know about the Internet today, we've already done before. The turn of this century was a lot like the turn of the last century.
"The Victorian Internet" is all about our world and the invention of the Telegraph. As cyberpunk author Neal Stephenson once pointed out, the telegraph was the world's first global digital network. It's when we started trying to push voice down the copper lines that we mucked things up.
In this book, you'll find technological wizardry, geek pioneers, global aspirations, long-distance romances, and online scams. You'll discover what 19th-Century chat was like. There are growing pains. We see fear for the future and fear of moral decline. The Telegraph represented a sudden, massive interconnection of people thousands of miles apart, and the effects of this overnight deluge of information is clear in reading. You have to remember that these were people used to feeling safe in their own homes, blissfully unaware of each other, and only vaguely informed of events going on in other countries.
Standage does a nice job of hitting on the hottest topics of our time, without hitting the reader over the head to make a point. Cybergeeks will love his stops at Cryptography, code, and the other programming-like solutions people came up with to solve their problems. Fans of history will be amused by the parallels between life then and now as "old media" learns to stop worrying and embrace "new media".
In a narrative style that resembles the British TV series "Connections", Standage shows us what each side of the Atlantic was up to, the race to connect the world, and the sheer determination and boundless optimism that made it all happen. There are also interesting tidbits along the way: we get facts about Samuel Morse and Thomas Edison that most history books ignore. There are anecdotes from 19th-century daily life that we can easily identify with today. All of it combines in a way that is easy to read, decently-paced, and fun to think about and discuss with others.
I give this book 5 stars for being clever with presentation and for keeping the various threads together without seeming fragmented. Tom Standage moves us through history without jumping around, and references earlier sections to remind us of where things are going. If you like history, technology, or even the geekier topics of machine logic, programming, and cryptography, this book makes an excellent read.
9 people found this helpful
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Grizzly Adams
4.0 out of 5 stars Gossipy, Not Technical
Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2023
Verified Purchase
Interesting tale, well-written, but I was hoping for more science than anecdote. Still, tells the story of the telegraph and the challenge of getting a skeptical world to embrace a brilliant idea. I found it interesting that the telephone was invented accidentally while attempting to enhance the telegraph's message-sending capacity. Overall, fun to read.
One person found this helpful
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Stephen
5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable tale of the telegraph, and how it relates to us today.
Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2009
Verified Purchase
This is a top-notch tale of the remarkable invention of the telegraph -- and how it blossomed from nascent experimental use in France, to the creation of Samuel Morse's electric telegraph which eventually interconnected the entire planet by the end of the 19th century. In all, "The Victorian Internet" by Tom Standage is a fascinating review of the history of the telegraph and how it parallels the Internet today.

Even the title of the book indicates that the Victorian era was when the telegraph's use was at its height. People used it then much as they use the Internet today: to communicate with family and friends, expedite commerce, seek romance ... and deceive the unwitting through scams.

We often think of the telecommunications revolution as being a primarily late-20th century innovation, but this book proves this is not so. In fact, if any group can lay claim to having to endure the greatest technological paradigm shift -- it would be our forebears from the mid to late 19th century.

For prior to this point, the fastest way in which information could travel was the speed of a charging horse or fast sailboat. However, with the creation of the first optical, then later electrical telegraph, what once would have taken months to ferry a message across vast distances was cut down to a few seconds.

Moreover, the seeds for many of the inventions and modern conveniences we take for granted now (i.e. the fax, telephone, Internet, etc.) are direct descendants of the telegraph and the pioneering spirit that caused it to undergo many improvements in its design. For example, the operating principle behind the telephones we use everyday was discovered quite accidentally when Alexander Graham Bell sought to improve upon the design and capacity of an existing telegraph. And the very word "network" itself derived from the "net-works" of telegraph cable which crisscrossed the globe. [The term "Internet" itself, comes from the telegraphic idea of "interconnected networks."]

This short book is a fun and fascinating read (which I often found hard to put down), showing that the telegraph and today's Internet have more in common than we know. Thus proving what wise King Solomon had already exclaimed thousands of years ago:

"That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which it may be said,
'See, this is new'?
It has already been in ancient times before us."
3 people found this helpful
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Babycakes
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting read
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2023
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Very easy and interesting read.
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Donald Hill
5.0 out of 5 stars A delightful read about the impact of the telegragh on modern communications
Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2018
Verified Purchase
This was a delightful story about the development of the telegragh, the key players involved and how that technology changed communications.

The books moderate length was written in a well balanced manner. It is quite intertaining and full of interesting storries and facts.

I give Tom Standage a thumbs up for this writing. It has been on my shelf of books to read for some time. I am really glad I picked it up and read it.

I have been in the telecommunications field for over 30 years. I have found this book to be very educational as well. The author defends the title well by making a parallel connection to the Internet of today. I was not disappointed in anyway with Mr. Standage's ability to tell this story. Great job!
8 people found this helpful
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Michael
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting treatment of the subject
Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2022
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Readable, well-written, accurate. Comparison of the telegraph to the internet is interesting, though at times overdone, I think. Not a particularly in-depth treatment of the subject, but a good overall view. If this accounts interests, I would suggest the reader see other titles on Morse, the Atlantic Cable, Edison, etc. that provide more detail on the subject. Of perhaps a dozen or so images and drawings in the book, a handful are of such abysmal quality that they are little more than blots of ink. The publisher should correct this or remove these entirely.
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Cliente Amazon
4.0 out of 5 stars Muito interessante, vale a leitura
Reviewed in Brazil on October 30, 2023
Verified Purchase
Este livro conta a história do telégrafo, em termos mais leigos, não tanto voltado para engenheiros eletricistas.
No entanto as histórias mencionadas são muito boas, desde as dificuldades de implementação quanto a de aceitação pelo público
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Theo
5.0 out of 5 stars really enjoyed, easy read, short
Reviewed in Spain on October 21, 2023
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very interesting topic, given how communication has sped up since the intro of the telegram, after being mostly flat for centuries prior. Well executed, not long, easy read, entertaining too, some good stories in there.
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MD
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating story about the origin of Telegraph
Reviewed in India on August 14, 2018
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Loved the in-depth coverage of history of telegraph. Didn't realise telegraphs were a global network before internet arrived on the scene
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Metropolitan Critic
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb popular science
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 28, 2011
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Standage tells the story of the telegraph in this delightful short book. It opens with a chapter on the 'optical telegraph' - the signalling system based on a network of mutually visible towers which flourished particulaly in France. After this, it traces the decisive step made by Morse, Cooke and Wheatstone in harnessing electricity to convey messages. There are fascinating chapters on the sceptics who doubted the value of the new technology; the problems of inter-continental cable laying; alternative messaging techniques such as capsules shot through tubes with compressed air; the use of the electric telegraph by criminals as well as the police; online telegraphic romance; the hopes that instant communication would lead to international conflict resolution; and the growing realisation that in fact it was an invaluable military techonology.

Finally telegraphy is over-taken by telephony, which allows a greater rapidly of communication and requires no intermediaries. The book closes with some thought-provoking remarks as to how new and revolutionary the Internet really is.

Throughout the material is admirably selected and the writing witty and clear. It is also a self-effacing book: as far as could be seen, the word 'I' (in the sense of 'Tom Standage') appears exactly once - in the acknowledgements section. Strongly recommended. His book on planetary discovery (The Neptune File) is also superb.
2 people found this helpful
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Calanus
4.0 out of 5 stars E-mail in the 19th century!
Reviewed in Canada on March 9, 2016
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The parallel development of two internet systems separated in time by nearly 200 years is amazing. Markedly different technology seeking the same goal. Rapid communication for its era. In this case days, weeks or months became hours. A historic change in communications. In addition is delves into the personal and private life of those developing this new technology. A must read for those interested in communication technology. I found the read both enjoyable and intellectually rewarding. Cal.
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