A little over a century ago the world went wireless. Cables and all
their limiting inefficiencies gave way to a revolutionary means of
transmitting news and information almost everywhere,
instantaneously. By means of "Hertzian waves," as radio waves were
initially known, ships could now make contact with other ships
(saving lives, such as on the doomed R.M.S. Titanic); financial
markets could coordinate with other financial markets, establishing
the price of commodities and fixing exchange rates; military
commanders could connect with the front lines, positioning
artillery and directing troop movements. Suddenly and irrevocably,
time and space telescoped beyond what had been thought imaginable.
Someone had not only imagined this networked world but realized it:
Guglielmo Marconi. As Marc Raboy shows us in this enthralling and
comprehensive biography, Marconi was the first truly global figure
in modern communications. Born to an Italian father and an Irish
mother, he was in many ways stateless, working his cosmopolitanism
to advantage. Through a combination of skill, tenacity, luck,
vision, and timing, Marconi popularized-and, more critically,
patented-the use of radio waves. Soon after he burst into public
view with a demonstration of his wireless apparatus in London at
the age of 22 in 1896, he established his Wireless Telegraph &
Signal Company and seemed unstoppable. He was decorated by the Czar
of Russia, named an Italian Senator, knighted by King George V of
England, and awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics-all before the age
of 40. Until his death in 1937, Marconi was at the heart of every
major innovation in electronic communication, courted by powerful
scientific, political, and financial interests, and trailed by the
media, which recorded and published nearly every one of his
utterances. He established stations and transmitters in every
corner of the globe, from Newfoundland to Buenos Aires, Hawaii to
Saint Petersburg. Based on original research and unpublished
archival materials in four countries and several languages, Raboy's
book is the first to connect significant parts of Marconi's story,
from his early days in Italy, to his groundbreaking experiments, to
his protean role in world affairs. Raboy also explores Marconi's
relationships with his wives, mistresses, and children, and
examines in unsparing detail the last ten years of the inventor's
life, when he returned to Italy and became a pillar of Benito
Mussolini's fascist regime. Raboy's engrossing biography, which
will stand as the authoritative work of its subject, proves that we
still live in the world Marconi created.
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