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 S.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 at the age of 22 with a demonstration of his wireless
apparatus in London, 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.
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 Based on original research and unpublished archival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
relationshps 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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