Threads : My Life In Style

By (author) Sir Paul Smith
One 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 organization to military tactics, from news gathering to sex work. Telephones, though an extraordinary invention, became so ubiquitous – in offices and on streets, on bed tables and kitchen walls – that they came to seem ordinary. People forgot how they lived without them. In The Telephone, renowned science historian James Gleick explodes myths about the telephone’s invention and reveals the corrupt scheming and ruthless tactics at the heart of the world’s most powerful business empire. As dial telephones, landlines, telephone books and telephone booths vanish into the past, he shows how this commonplace object ushered in the information age, and changed not only the world but who we are as human beings.