A history and survey of the communications revolution, from the struggles to lay the transatlantic telephone wires in the 1950s to the development of communication satellites and the new breakthrough in fibre optics. Other work by the author includes "2001: A Space Odyssey".
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4.3 out of 5 stars
6 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
4 and 1/2 Stars
29 April 2001
By Bill R. Moore
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
How The World Was One is a highly interesting history of communications from the telegraph forward, written by a true expert on the subject. The first 100 or so pages of the book focus on the invention of the telegraph, and the great and largely unknown trials and troubles that went into the laying of the first transatlantic submarine cable. This stranger-than-fiction tale is enchanced by the underlying substory of the life of such people as the "great American" Cyrus W. Field. Further into the book, we are told of the invention of the telephone and the subsequent impact it had on communications, and, indeed, civilization itself. Here we hear about people such as, of course, Alexander Graham Bell, and Oliver Heaviside. After this, we are treated to a true insider's view of comsats, a thing which Clarke, as is well known, played a large part in, and we are given here a reprint of his classic "Short Pre-History of Comsats: Or How I Lost A Billion Dollars In My Spare Time." Due to the author's personal involvement, the subject comes off as fresh and interesting, and does not read like dry technical jargon. The same is true of the book as a whole. There are technical bits involved (indeed, in the book there is a reprint of ACC's original comsat essay "Extra-Terrestrial Relays", published in Wireless World in 1945), but Clarke is a gifted writer, and the book's prose is such that it is interesting to the expert and enlightening and entertaining to the unitiated. This book is fairly hard to find, but I suggest you pick it up if you can find it, if you are looking for some good non-SF ACC, or a get-it-all-in-one-place communications history.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Story!
2 Jun 1999
By Barkley Kern
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Clarke's telling of Cyrus Fields' incredible effort to connect Europe and North America with a telegraph cable is fascinating. This story seems to have been lost to history except for this book which now sadly appears to be out of print. What a pity! If you can find it. Read it.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Book Review: How the World was One
17 Mar 2001
By Craig Bartmess
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
This book is an insightful and interesting look at the Communications Revolution. This is a revolution that has touched and changed every aspect of human life. Clarke divides his book into three parts: the past, the present and the future. The first part of the book is a history of the laying of the first transoceanic cable between Europe and America. At first glance this seems to have little relevance to the "technologies" of the modern age. We all admit that our personal computers, the Internet, cell phones, cyber space, and satellite links are precipitating a revolution. This is a revolution that is often portrayed as very recent in origin. Yet these technologies are in fact only the latest manifestation of a cultural mind shift that began over 150 years ago. The author's entertaining description of the coming together of personalities, science, politics, and economics was fascinating. As I read further it became clear that it was not only an interesting story about the past but also a striking parallel to our present situation and a powerful insight into the challenges of our future.
The second part of the book takes a look at the present (1992) state of communications in the world. This was informative for someone with very little technological knowledge. Clarke explains such things as fiber optics and how satellite communications takes place. He also explains the technological difficulties of various methods of communication. Have you ever wondered why we still have transoceanic cables in this age of instantaneous satellite communication? Clarke makes the answer not only accurate but also interesting. Written like an unfolding mystery novel, the reader is drawn into areas of scientific knowledge that might have seemed too complicated or too boring for the layperson. Those of you who are techies would probably find this book elementary and simple from a scientific perceptive. Those of us with a more rudimentary scientific background will find the descriptions presented in the book easy to understand and enlightening. Both types of readers will find the human stories that are told engaging and revealing.
The third part of Clarke's book is as interesting for what it does not talk about as for what it does. Written in 1992 this part makes some interesting predictions about the future. The author is famous for his very accurate predictions of future events. Right after World War II he predicted the importance of satellite communications and is widely recognized as the godfather of Telestar. His science fiction classic 2001. A Space Odyssey is receiving a great deal of attention this year for very obvious reasons. Yet the creator of Hal, has almost nothing to say about the importance of the personal computer for the future. In a book primarily concerned with communication and with how the world is being made into a global village by various methods of communication, Clarke has very little to say about the Internet. Both omissions are remarkable statements about just how much the world of communications has changed in the last ten years.
I found the book to be an interesting and entertaining history of the communication revolution. For those of us who believe that we can learn from the mistakes as well as the accomplishments of the past this will be a valuable and fun book to read.
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4.3 out of 5 stars
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