The Analogue Revolution

A lucid and extremely readable account of information and communication technology in the years preceding the First World War.

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We are all familiar with the digital revolution which has swept across the developed world in recent years. It has ushered in an age of smartphones, laptop computers and ready access to the internet. A little over a century ago, a similar explosion took place in the field of information and communication technology. This revolution was not digital but analogue, and it saw the birth of mass media such as newspapers, cinema and radio.

In The Analogue Revolution, Simon Webb examines the impact which developments in printing, photography, wireless telegraphy, gramophones and moving pictures had in the years preceding the First World War and shows how the modern world was shaped by the media used to record it. From the first mass-circulation newspapers to cameras so cheap that everybody could afford them, from early experiments in radio broadcasting to cinema films in colour; The Analogue Revolution charts the history of the first information revolution of the twentieth century. The parallels with the modern world are uncanny. These range from anxiety about the use of new technology to distribute pornography, to worries about children losing interest in reading because they prefer to watch films. For anybody wishing to understand the modern world, this book is an essential primer in the nature of information revolutions and the way in which they affect the world.