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America calling : a social history of the telephone to 1940 / Claude S. Fischer.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: Berkeley : University of California Press, 1992.Description: 1 online resource (xv, 424 pages) : illustrationsContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • computer
Carrier type:
  • online resource
ISBN:
  • 9780520915008
  • 0520915003
  • 0585176531
  • 9780585176536
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Additional physical formats: Print version:: America calling.DDC classification:
  • 302.23/5/0973 20
LOC classification:
  • HE8817 .F56 1992eb
Other classification:
  • F637. 129
  • 15.85
  • 53.76
  • AP 18300
  • MS 4850
Online resources:
Contents:
Technology and modern life -- Telephone in America -- Educating the public -- Telephone spreads : national patterns -- Telephone spreads : local patterns -- Becoming commonplace -- Local attachment, 1890-1940 -- Personal calls, personal meanings.
Awards:
  • Society for the History of Technology Sidney Edelstein Prize, 1995.
Summary: The telephone looms large in our lives, as ever present in modern societies as cars and television. Claude Fischer presents the first social history of this vital but little-studied technology--how we encountered, tested, and ultimately embraced it with enthusiasm. Using telephone ads, oral histories, telephone industry correspondence, and statistical data, Fischer's work is a colorful exploration of how, when, and why Americans started communicating in this radically new manner. Studying three California communities, Fischer uncovers how the telephone became integrated into the private worlds and community activities of average Americans in the first decades of this century. Women were especially avid in their use, a phenomenon which the industry first vigorously discouraged and then later wholeheartedly promoted. Again and again Fischer finds that the telephone supported a wide-ranging network of social relations and played a crucial role in community life, especially for women, from organizing children's relationships and church activities to alleviating the loneliness and boredom of rural life. Deftly written and meticulously researched, America Calling adds an important new chapter to the social history of our nation and illuminates a fundamental aspect of cultural modernism that is integral to contemporary life. --Publisher.
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Includes bibliographical references and index.

The telephone looms large in our lives, as ever present in modern societies as cars and television. Claude Fischer presents the first social history of this vital but little-studied technology--how we encountered, tested, and ultimately embraced it with enthusiasm. Using telephone ads, oral histories, telephone industry correspondence, and statistical data, Fischer's work is a colorful exploration of how, when, and why Americans started communicating in this radically new manner. Studying three California communities, Fischer uncovers how the telephone became integrated into the private worlds and community activities of average Americans in the first decades of this century. Women were especially avid in their use, a phenomenon which the industry first vigorously discouraged and then later wholeheartedly promoted. Again and again Fischer finds that the telephone supported a wide-ranging network of social relations and played a crucial role in community life, especially for women, from organizing children's relationships and church activities to alleviating the loneliness and boredom of rural life. Deftly written and meticulously researched, America Calling adds an important new chapter to the social history of our nation and illuminates a fundamental aspect of cultural modernism that is integral to contemporary life. --Publisher.

Technology and modern life -- Telephone in America -- Educating the public -- Telephone spreads : national patterns -- Telephone spreads : local patterns -- Becoming commonplace -- Local attachment, 1890-1940 -- Personal calls, personal meanings.

Print version record.

Society for the History of Technology Sidney Edelstein Prize, 1995.

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