The book was good, and largely lived up to its billing, but in the end I liked "The Telegraph: A History of Morse's Invention and Its Predecessors in the United States" better. While the thrust of the book - that the telegraph was the Victorian equiv. of the Internet - can be supported, truthfully that supposition is somewhat elementary since both are fundamental communication devices. So the subject of the book is somewhat of a, "Duh!"

What was more interesting was the very, very end when specific parallels were made with regard to both the societal expectations of the telegraph and later the Internet were made, how they didn't turn out to be true in the late 1800s with the telegraph and how they are still not true, despite hopes, in the late 1900s with the Internet. In some ways, despite technology, and what it brings, people are as dumb as ever.