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This book makes the startling case that
North Americans were getting on the "information highway"
as early as the 1700s, and have been using it as a critical
part of their social, economic, and political world ever
since.
By the time of the founding of the United
States, there was a postal system and roads for the distribution
of mail, as well as newspapers, books, and broadsides to
bring information to a populace that was building a nation
on the basis of an informed electorate. In the 19th century,
Americans developed the telegraph, telephone, and motion
pictures, inventions that further expanded the reach of
information. In the 20th century they added television,
computers, and the Internet, ultimately connecting themselves
to the whole world of information. From the beginning Americans
were willing too invest heavily in the infrastructure to
make such connectivity possible. This book explores what
the deployment of these technologies says about U.S. society.
The editors assembled a group of contributors
who are experts in their particular fields, from management
consulting to history to sociology, and worked with them
to create a book that is fully integrated and cross referenced.
An important new look at American history, A Nation Transformed
by Information will interest anyone who wants to understand
how the United States has stepped so confidently into the
latest Information Age.
Albert D. Chandler, Jr., is the Strauss
Professor of Business History, Emeritus, in the Graduate
School of Business Administration at Harvard University.
He is the author of Strategy and Structure (1962),
The Visible Hand (1977), and Scale and Scope
(1990), among other volumes. He has won many prizes, including
the Pulitzer and Bancroft Prizes. Chandler is currently
studying the way industries have acquired and leveraged
their knowledge for strategic and competitive success.
James W. Cortada is an Executive Consultant
with IBM Global Services. He is the author of a number of
books on the management and history of information technology.
Some of his recent publications include Before
the Computer: IBM, NCR, Burroughs, and Remington Rand and
the Industry they Created, 1865-1956
(1993), The Computer in the United
States (1993), and Best
Practices in Information Technology
(1998). His primary area of interest is on how businesses
used information processing.
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