Tom Wheeler (1) (1946–)
Autor von Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: The Untold Story of How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War
Andere Autoren mit dem Namen Tom Wheeler findest Du auf der Unterscheidungs-Seite.
Über den Autor
Tom Wheeler is president of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
Werke von Tom Wheeler
Getagged
Wissenswertes
- Geburtstag
- 1946-04-05
- Geschlecht
- male
- Nationalität
- USA
- Geburtsort
- Redlands, California, USA
- Wohnorte
- Palm City, Florida, USA
- Berufe
- screenwriter
producer - Organisationen
- National Cable Television Association
Cellular Communications and Internet Association
Core Capital Partners
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Foundation for the National Archives
Public Broadcasting System (Zeige alle 7)
Federal Communications Commission - Kurzbiographie
- Tom Wheeler has been CEO of multiple high-tech companies, as well as CEO of the National Cable Television Association and the Cellular Communications and Internet Association. Presently, he is a managing director with Core Capital Partners and a member of the boards of directors of numerous technology companies. His op-ed commentaries on the historical analogues to current events have been published in the Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, and other leading publications. Wheeler was appointed a trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts by both President Clinton and President Bush. He is chairman and president of the Foundation for the National Archives, the nonprofit organization dedicated to telling the American story through its documents, and a director of the Public Broadcasting System. [from Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails (2006)]
In 2013, he became the 31st Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. [Wikipedia.org]
Mitglieder
Rezensionen
Auszeichnungen
Dir gefällt vielleicht auch
Nahestehende Autoren
Statistikseite
- Werke
- 4
- Mitglieder
- 251
- Beliebtheit
- #91,086
- Bewertung
- 3.8
- Rezensionen
- 5
- ISBNs
- 52
- Sprachen
- 3
This book was first published in 2005, and Wheeler makes effective comparison, as book's title suggests, between the advent of the telegraph and email, making a credible case that the telegraph was actually the much more revolutionary development. Wheeler avers early on that the Congress members of the early 1960s were much more able to conceptualize (and therefore vote funding for) sending a man to the moon that those of the early 1850s were to wrap their brains around the concept of sending electronic pulses long distance across wires.
We see through Lincoln's telegraphs, all of which are on archive, the poor quality of the Federal commanders over the early years of the war, and Lincoln's frustrations with their dithering and reluctance to go on the offensive. Eventually, Lincoln, who was also receiving telegraphs from post commanders and so knew where enemy forces were and which way they were going, became less and less reluctant to provide strategic recommendations.
Wheeler makes the point that Lincoln's gradual ability to fully master this new communication tool and its functions is one more indication of the president's remarkable character and intelligence. He was learning these things on the fly with--because the technology was so new--no blueprint to follow and nobody to advise him as he learned.
Wheeler starts with a clear and to-the-point background about the advent of the telegraph. He makes the point that of the three technological advances that changed the nature of warfare as the Civil War progressed--the rifle bored musket, the proliferation of the railroad and the telegraph system--the South largely rejected the last two of those, the railroad and the telegraph, because they saw these inventions as promoting centralized authority over the regional identities and states' rights philosophy that they favored and were will to fight for. (Ironically, Wheeler identifies the Confederate victory at the first Battle of Bull Run as being made possible by the first ever transport of troops directly to a battle by rail.)
I found this book to be very well organized, clearly written and sharply edited, and quite interesting. I certainly don't consider myself any sort of an expert on the Civil War, but I have read quite a few histories of the period. It was nice to read a book that provided me a previously unrealized perspective and new insights.… (mehr)