For thousands of years, messages had been limited by the speed with which messengers could travel and the distance that eyes could see signals like flags or smoke. As those who witnessed it understood, this demonstration would change the world. He used a code that he had recently devised and spelled out “What Hath God Wrought.” Thirty miles away in Baltimore, Morse’s associate, Alfred Vail, received the electric signals and telegraphed the message back. Supreme Court in Washington, tapped out a message on a device of cogs and coiled wires. Morse, sitting in the chambers of the U.S. One of the many aspects of history that I treat in the book is innovation in communications and its consequences. Both kinds of history are essential for a full understanding of the past. I also wanted to combine the traditional kind of history–political, military, diplomatic–with the newer kinds of history: social, cultural, and economic. I also knew that I wanted to address not just fellow academic specialists and our captive audiences in the courses we teach but also the general curious public. When I signed on to do my volume in the Oxford History of the United States, several volumes had already appeared, so I knew what was expected.
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