The Invisible Weapon Telecommunications and International Politics, 1851-1945

A vital instrument of power, telecommunications is and has always been a political technology. In this book, Headrick examines the political history of telecommunications from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of World War II. He argues that this technology gave society new options. In times of peace, the telegraph and radio were, as many predicted, instruments of peace; in times of tension, they became instruments of politics, tools for rival interests, and weapons of war. Writing in a lively, accessible style, Headrick illuminates the political aspects of information technology, showing how in both World Wars, the use of radio led to a shadowy war of disinformation, cryptography, and communications intelligence, with decisive consequences.

Contents; 1 Telecommunications and International Relations; Characteristics of Electrical Communications; Telecommunications and World History; International Telecommunications as a Field of Study; 2 New Technology; Origins of the Telegraph; International Telegraphic Cooperation; The First Submarine Telegraph Cables; The Mediterranean Cables; The First Atlantic Cables; The Red Sea Cable; Telegraphs to India; Conclusion; 3 The Expansion of the World Cable Network, 1866-1895; The Technology of Cables; The Atlantic Cables; The Cable Companies; Cables to India and Australia; Cable Rivalries in the West Indies and Latin America; Across Russia to Japan; Commercial Codes and the International Telegraph Union; Conclusion; 4 Telegraphy and Imperialism in the Late Nineteenth Century; The Telegraph in India; The Telegraph in Indochina; Cables and News in the French West Indies; The Telegraph in China; The East African Cables; The West African Cables; Cables and Colonial Control; Conclusion; 5 Crisis at the Turn of the Century, 1895-1901; Telegraphy and Diplomacy; British Cable Strategy to 1898; Telegraphic Delays and French Imperialism; Germany and the Azores Affair; The Spanish-American War; The Fashoda Incident; The British Strategic Cable Report of 1898; The Boer War; 6 The Great Powers and the Cable Crisis, 1900-1913; The British Pacific Cable and the "All-Red" Routes; British Cable Strategy, 1902-1914; The American Cables; France and the Cable Crisis; Germany and the Cable Crisis; Conclusion; 7 The Beginnings of Radio, 1895-1914; Marconi and the Birth of Wireless Telegraphy; The Marconi Monopoly and the Reaction of the Powers; Technological Change and Commercial Rivalries; The U.S. Navy and Radio to 1908; The Continuous Ware, 1908-1914; French Colonial Wireless; German Long-Distance and Colonial Radio; The British Imperial Wireless Chain; Conclusion; 8 Cables and Radio in World War I; The Jitters of July 1914; Allied Attacks on German Communications; German Attacks on Allied Communications; Allied Communications during the War; Censorship; Propaganda; Conclusion; 9 Communications Intelligence in World War I; Government Cryptology before 1914; Communications Intelligence on Land; British Naval Interception and Direction-Finding; German Codes and British Cryptanalysis in 1914; British Naval Intelligence, 1915-1916; The U-Boat War, 1917-1918; German Communications Intelligence; The Zimmerman Telegram; 10 Conflicts and Settlements, 1919-1923; The Paris Peace Conference of 1919; The Washington Conferences of 1920-1922; The Struggle over Cables to Latin America; The Radio Corporation of America; British Radio, 1919~1924; German and French Radio to 1924; Radio in Latin America and China; Conclusion; 11 Technological Upheavals and Commercial Rivalries, 1924-1939; The Distribution of Cables in the World in 1923; Cable Technology in the 1920s; The New Cables, 1924-1929; ITT and the Telephones; The British Reaction; French Colonial Shortwave; The International Impact of Shortwave; The British Communications Merger; Responses to the British Merger; The British Dilemma: Profits versus Security; Conclusion; 12 Communications Intelligence in World War II; British and German Communications Intelligence to 1936; Cipher Machines; The Approach of War, 1936-1939; The Outbreak of War, 1939-1940; British Communications Intelligence in Wartime; German Communications Intelligence in Wartime; The Battles of Britain and North Africa; German Spies and Allied Radio Deception; Funkspiele, Resistance, and the Normandy Landing; The Soviet Rings; Conclusion; 13 The War at Sea; The Cable War; Communications and Naval Warfare in the Atlantic; The Battle of the Atlantic, 1939-1944; American Communications Intelligence before Pearl Harbor; From Pearl Harbor to Midway; After Midway; 14 The Changing of the Guard; The American Expansion; Strategic Cables to North Africa and Europe; The Retreat of Britain; The Organization of Postwar Communications; Conclusion; 15 Telecommunications, Information, and Security; Bibliography Essay; Books on Submarine Telegraph Cables; Books on Radio and Telecommunications; Communications Intelligence; Primary Sources; Index

Daniel R. Headrick is Professor Emeritus of Social Science and History at Roosevelt University and author of numerous books on world history, including Power over Peoples: Technology, Environments, and Western Imperialism, 1400 to the Present, Technology: A World History (OUP, 2009), When Information Came of Age (OUP, 2000), The Tentacles of Progress (OUP, 1988), and The Tools of Empire (OUP, 1981).