The Telephone: A New History

From the New York Times bestselling author, a thrilling history of the telephone and how we fell in and out of love with a technology that changed our lives. 'Charts our distance-compressing, time-shifting telephonic adventure with exceptional brio and subtlety' - Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth ExtinctionOne hundred and fifty years ago, the telephone burst onto the world stage like magic, a supernatural instrument bringing voices from afar.Instantly, the ability to speak across vast distances began to transform every part of life: from business organisation to military tactics, from news gathering to sex work. Telephones, though an extraordinary invention, became so ubiquitous - in offices and on streets, on bedside tables and kitchen walls - that they came to seem ordinary.People forgot how they ever lived without them. In The Telephone, renowned science historian and bestselling author James Gleick explores myths about the telephone’s invention and reveals the corrupt schemin