Technology and Communication in American History

Downey explores the history of communication technology in the United States from the colonial period to the present, including print culture, wired networks, broadcast communication, and the digital covergence of communication in cyberspace. Each new round of communication technology is situated within four overlapping historiacal themes: national integration, industiral urbanization, mass consumption, and global economic restructuring. Drawing upon both well-know and more recent scholarly work--from the historiography of technology, communications studies, information studies, and human geography--Downey pays close attention not only to the state and the market as sources of technological innovation, but aslo to the audience and the laborer as key actors in technological adoption. Fully illustrated and with a comprehensive bibliography, this booklet is suitable for both students and faculty seeking an accessible but analytical introduction to the history of American communication technology.

GreGory J. Downey is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he is also the director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Downey received his B.S. and M.S. in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an M.A. in liberal studies from Northwestern University, and a joint Ph.D. in the history of technology and human geography from Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of Closed Captioning: Subtitling, Stenography, and the Digital Convergence of Text with Television (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), and Telegraph Messenger Boys: Labor, Technology, and Geography, 1850-1950 (Routledge, 2002).