by Russell W. Burns
The Institution of Engineering and Technology, 2004
eISBN: 978-1-84919-024-4 | Paper: 978-0-86341-330-8 | Cloth: 978-0-86341-327-8
Library of Congress Classification TK5102.2.B87 2004
Dewey Decimal Classification 621.38209

ABOUT THIS BOOK | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Communications: An international history of the formative years traces the evolution of communications from 500 BC, when fire beacons were used for signalling, to the 1940s, when high definition television systems were developed for the entertainment, education and enlightenment of society. The book does not simply provide a chronicle of dates and events, nor is it a descriptive catalogue of devices and systems. Rather, it discusses the essential factors - technical, political, social, economic and general - that enabled the evolution of modern communications. The author has taken a contextual approach to show the influence of one discipline upon another, and the unfolding story has been widely illustrated with contemporary quotations, allowing the progress of communications to be seen from the perspective of the times and not from the standpoint of a later generation.