CBS professor’s article published in MIT PRESS anthology

Professor Kurt Jacobsen’s article on submarine telegraphy and international politics has been published

CBS professor Kurt Jacobsen’s article Small nation, international submarine telegraphy, and international politics: the Great Northern Telegraph Company, 1869-1940 has been published in the anthology Communications Under the Seas: The Evolving Cable Network and Its Implications, which is going to be published by the academic publishing house MIT PRESS in September 2009.

From undersea cables to fibre optics

The anthology traces the development of communications technology – from undersea telegraph cables in 1850s to present day fibre-optic cables, which has led to unparalleled capacity and speed in worldwide communication.

The different technologies’ social, economic and political effects are examined in the anthology. The basis is that if we cannot predict the ultimate consequences of today’s wired world – its impact on economic markets, free expression and war and peace – we can examine how similar issues have been dealt with in the past.

Book review

The anthology has gotten great reviews from, among others, Richard R. John, Professor of History at the University of Illinois: ”This superb collection of essays by the world's leading historians of international communications is a welcome addition to the small but growing literature on the geopolitical dimensions of information technology.”