Tempest in a Teapot

Last week I caught a bit of a NPR interview with Tom Standage as he’s out promoting his new book, An Edible History of Humanity. I really enjoyed the wideranging and fascinating discussion he & the host had. Mr. Standage seems like one of those people you’d totally want as a dinner guest, because he could certainly liven up the conversation! In addition to being an editor at The Economist magazine, he churns out fascinating books.

I’m on the waiting list at the library for An Edible History, but did manage to check out The Victorian Internet. He mentioned it in his interview and it caught my attention. It’s a history of the telegraph and how it changed the world. I hadn’t thought of it before, but it’s true – the world shift that happened in a very short time span, 50 years or so 1840s-1890s, was HUGE. It went from taking weeks for news to spread to daily reporting. The telegraph was the start for Reuters and other news agencies that still exist today. Mr. Standage claims that time-traveling Victorians would feel right at home with our internet. It’s merely the latest outgrowth of the change that started with the telegraph.

Hope to start on another one of his books, The Turk, as Madeline cooperates.