Daniel R. Headrick is Professor Emeritus of Social Science and History at Roosevelt University and author of numerous books on world history, including Power over Peoples: Technology, Environments, and Western Imperialism, 1400 to the Present, Technology: A World History (OUP, 2009), When Information Came of Age (OUP, 2000), The Tentacles of Progress (OUP, 1988), and The Tools of Empire (OUP, 1981).

A mine of useful information for communication researchers....The data presented here represent a major contribution to the field and will be of immense value to scholars interested in the historical linkages between mass media and communication technology .A refreshing-and relativizing-historical perspective.

• Contents ; 1 Telecommunications and International Relations ; Characteristics of Electrical Communications ; Telecommunications and World History ; International Telecommunications as a Field of Study ; 2 New Technology ; Origins of the Telegraph ; International Telegraphic Cooperation ; The First Submarine Telegraph Cables ; The Mediterranean Cables ; The First Atlantic Cables ; The Red Sea Cable ; Telegraphs to India ; Conclusion ; 3 The Expansion of the World Cable Network, 1866-1895 ; The Technology of Cables ; The Atlantic Cables ; The Cable Companies ; Cables to India and Australia ; Cable Rivalries in the West Indies and Latin America ; Across Russia to Japan ; Commercial Codes and the International Telegraph Union ; Conclusion ; 4 Telegraphy and Imperialism in the Late Nineteenth Century ; The Telegraph in India ; The Telegraph in Indochina ; Cables and News in the French West Indies ; The Telegraph in China ; The East African Cables ; The West African Cables ; Cables and Colonial Control ; Conclusion ; 5 Crisis at the Turn of the Century, 1895-1901 ; Telegraphy and Diplomacy ; British Cable Strategy to 1898 ; Telegraphic Delays and French Imperialism ; Germany and the Azores Affair ; The Spanish-American War ; The Fashoda Incident ; The British Strategic Cable Report of 1898 ; The Boer War ; 6 The Great Powers and the Cable Crisis, 1900-1913 ; The British Pacific Cable and the "All-Red" Routes ; British Cable Strategy, 1902-1914 ; The American Cables ; France and the Cable Crisis ; Germany and the Cable Crisis ; Conclusion ; 7 The Beginnings of Radio, 1895-1914 ; Marconi and the Birth of Wireless Telegraphy ; The Marconi Monopoly and the Reaction of the Powers ; Technological Change and Commercial Rivalries ; The U.S. Navy and Radio to 1908 ; The Continuous Ware, 1908-1914 ; French Colonial Wireless ; German Long-Distance and Colonial Radio ; The British Imperial Wireless Chain ; Conclusion ; 8 Cables and Radio in World War I ; The Jitters of July 1914 ; Allied Attacks on German Communications ; German Attacks on Allied Communications ; Allied Communications during the War ; Censorship ; Propaganda ; Conclusion ; 9 Communications Intelligence in World War I ; Government Cryptology before 1914 ; Communications Intelligence on Land ; British Naval Interception and Direction-Finding ; German Codes and British Cryptanalysis in 1914 ; British Naval Intelligence, 1915-1916 ; The U-Boat War, 1917-1918 ; German Communications Intelligence ; The Zimmerman Telegram ; 10 Conflicts and Settlements, 1919-1923 ; The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 ; The Washington Conferences of 1920-1922 ; The Struggle over Cables to Latin America ; The Radio Corporation of America ; British Radio, 1919~1924 ; German and French Radio to 1924 ; Radio in Latin America and China ; Conclusion ; 11 Technological Upheavals and Commercial Rivalries, 1924-1939 ; The Distribution of Cables in the World in 1923 ; Cable Technology in the 1920s ; The New Cables, 1924-1929 ; ITT and the Telephones ; The British Reaction ; French Colonial Shortwave ; The International Impact of Shortwave ; The British Communications Merger ; Responses to the British Merger ; The British Dilemma: Profits versus Security ; Conclusion ; 12 Communications Intelligence in World War II ; British and German Communications Intelligence to 1936 ; Cipher Machines ; The Approach of War, 1936-1939 ; The Outbreak of War, 1939-1940 ; British Communications Intelligence in Wartime ; German Communications Intelligence in Wartime ; The Battles of Britain and North Africa ; German Spies and Allied Radio Deception ; Funkspiele, Resistance, and the Normandy Landing ; The Soviet Rings ; Conclusion ; 13 The War at Sea ; The Cable War ; Communications and Naval Warfare in the Atlantic ; The Battle of the Atlantic, 1939-1944 ; American Communications Intelligence before Pearl Harbor ; From Pearl Harbor to Midway ; After Midway ; 14 The Changing of the Guard ; The American Expansion ; Strategic Cables to North Africa and Europe ; The Retreat of Britain ; The Organization of Postwar Communications ; Conclusion ; 15 Telecommunications, Information, and Security ; Bibliography Essay ; Books on Submarine Telegraph Cables ; Books on Radio and Telecommunications ; Communications Intelligence ; Primary Sources ; Index