America Calling - A Social History of the Telephone to 1940 (Paper)

1. Auflage 1994
ISBN: 978-0-520-08647-0
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 424 Seiten, Trade Paperback, Format (B × H): 150 mm x 223 mm, Gewicht: 689 g

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fischer, Claude S.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Film, Video, Foto
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Medientheorie, Medienanalyse
• Geisteswissenschaften Design Grafikdesign, Kommunikationsdesign
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Journalismus & Presse
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Mediensoziologie
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftssektoren & Branchen Medien-, Informations und Kommunikationswirtschaft Presse & Journalismus
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Wirtschaftssektoren & Branchen Medien-, Informations und Kommunikationswirtschaft Telekommunikationswirtschaft, Post
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Medienphilosophie, Medienethik, Medienrecht
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Medien & Gesellschaft, Medienwirkungsforschung
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften Fernsehen & Rundfunk

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface

CHAPTER I
Technology and Modern Life

CHAPTER 2
The Telephone in America

CHAPTER 3
Educating the Public

CHAPTER 4
The Telephone Spreads: National Patterns

CHAPTER 5
The Telephone Spreads: Local Patterns

CHAPTER 6
Becoming Commonplace

CHAPTER 7
Local Attachment, I89D-I940

CHAPTER 8
Personal Calls, Personal Meanings

CHAPTER 9
Conclusion

APPENDIX A
Bibliographic Essay

APPENDIX B
Statistical Analyses of Telephone and Automobile Distribution

APPENDIX C
Telephone Subscription among Iowa Farmers, 1924

APPENDIX D
Summary of Expenditure Studies by Household Income
or Occupation

APPENDIX E
The 1918-1919 Cost of Living Study

APPENDIX F
Who Had the Telephone When?

APPENDIX G
Analysis of Advertisement Data

APPENDIX H
Statistical Analyses for Chapter 7

Notes
Bibliography
Index
Photograph section follows page 153

Über Autor(innen)

Claude S. Fischer is Professor of the Graduate School in Sociology, and the author of To Dwell among Friends: Personal Networks in Town and City (1982) and The Urban Experience (1984).