Global Communications since 1844: Geopolitics and Technology

In World Trade since 1431, Peter Hugill showed how the interplay of technology and geography guided the evolution of the modern global capitalistic system. Now, in the successor to that widely acclaimed book, Hugill shifts the focus to telecommunications, once again demonstrating that those nations that best developed and marketed new technologies were the nations that rose to world power.

Beginning with the advent of the telegraph in the 1840s, Hugill shows how each major change in transportation and communications technologies brought about a corresponding transformation from one world economy to another. British advances in international telegraphy after the American Civil War, for example, kept that nation just ahead of the United States in the communications race, a position it held until 1945. Hugill explains how such developments as aerial bombardment of cities in World War I spurred the development of radio and, ultimately, radar. He also traces the steps that led to the British surrender of world hegemony to the United States at the end of World War II.

In World Trade since 1431, Peter Hugill showed how the interplay of technology and geography guided the evolution of the modern global capitalistic system. Now, in the successor to that widely acclaimed book, Hugill shifts the focus to telecommunications, once again demonstrating that those nations that best developed and marketed new technologies were the nations that rose to world power.

Beginning with the advent of the telegraph in the 1840s, Hugill shows how each major change in transportation and communications technologies brought about a corresponding transformation from one world economy to another. British advances in international telegraphy after the American Civil War, for example, kept that nation just ahead of the United States in the communications race, a position it held until 1945. Hugill explains how such developments as aerial bombardment of cities in World War I spurred the development of radio and, ultimately, radar. He also traces the steps that led to the British surrender of world hegemony to the United States at the end of World War II.

Praise for Peter Hugill's World Trade since 1431:

"A magnificent work, Braudelian in its conception, scope, and attention to detail... A delight." — Progress in Human Geography

"A first-rate historical study in the genre of world history... Combines geography with the social sciences in skillful fashion. It is lucidly written and will appeal to the specialist and general reader." — Virginia Quarterly Review

"Hugill provides a refreshingly long historical sweep in arguing that transportation technologies have been the key to success in world trade... A wealth of historical and technical detail." — Geonomics

Booknews

Beginning with the opening of the first user-friendly public telegraph line, from Washington, DC to Baltimore, Hugill (geography, Texas A&M U.) traces the growth of communications, relying heavily on the discipline of geopolitics as introduced by Halford Mackinder in late- Victorian and Edwardian Britain. He likes his history with a solid theoretical foundation in social science, and is more concerned with characterizing the temporal and geographical core of trends than with delineating the borders between them. His account proceeds up to telecommunications and world-system theory. His glossary does not indicate pronunciation. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Peter J. Hugill is a professor of geography at Texas A & M University. He is the author of World Trade since 1431, also available from Johns Hopkins.